BRITISH MINING AREAS

Evening Star, Issue 20052, 18 December 1928, Page 7

BRITISH MINING AREAS

RELIEF OF DISTRESS THE GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSALS (British Offioial Wirelew.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, December 17. (Received December 18,, at noon.) The Lord Mayor of London’* fund for the relief of distress in the mining areas now exceeds £165,000. The Lord Mayor’s fund is the largest of many that are being subscribed to, and throughout the country organisations are also engaged in collecting clothing, foodstuffs, and other gifts in kind. The Prime Minister stated in the House of Commons to-day that the Government was not opposed to asking Parliament to authorise certain measures to deal with the present emergency in tho distressed mining areas. It was very important that these measures should be considered. In addition to the policy which tho Government had already initiated and was resolved to pursue, and apart altogether from the heavy cost of tho normal social sendees, including unemployment insurance, school medical services, and maternity and child welfare, and in addition to the proposals for tho relief of industry from local taxation, tho special provisions made by Parliament for the assistance of the unemployed generally during the current financial year amounted to £1,700,000 over and above the Budget cstimates. Tho special measures which the Government would now ask Parliament to consider were; Authority to grant to the Lord Mayor’s fund £1 for ©very £1 received in voluntary subscriptions, and to make an immediate grant of £■150,000 to the fund as the equivalent of the money already subscribed to the 'fund. Mr Baldwin said the transfers of the unemployed from the distressed areas was proceeding steadily, but it was hindered because married men found it difficult to leave their homes unless special assistance was available for their removal and the resettlement of their families. He would therefore ask Parliament to vote £IOO,OOO immediately for the removal of familke.