UNEMPLOYED AND CAMPS.

Evening Star, Issue 21708, 1 May 1934, Page 8

UNEMPLOYED AND CAMPS.

Ix the words' of ‘ Mikado,’ the great majority of the who had been menaced with the deprivation of relief work through the fact of their having been pronounced medically unfit to go into country camps can now say “ The threatened cloud has passed away.” The agreement that has been reached as the result of a conference with members of the Hospital Board represents something very different from the drastic decree issued by Mr Bromley for a commencement. It is conceded that the mail who is unable to do camp work will still be allowed to do relief work in the city if he is fit for that, which means that the main threat has been recalled. At the same time, there will be a re-examina-tion of rejected men in the order in which they should be generally most fit, and also most free, for camp employment. It will be for a committee to weed out. and make a charge of the Hospital Board, men who apply for work on the No. 5 scheme without being really capable of working at all. Instead of a great relief to its funds at the cost of hardship, the Unemployment Board will obtain a small one which appears to be not other than just. The crux of the position governing Public Works camps is that only fifty men are needed for that employment, and not more are likely to be needed soon. If the camps had been less shunned by a proportion of men who would have been better in pocket by going to them, and some of whom, if they had gone to them in summer time, might have improved their health, the alarm which has just been caused would never have arisen. In proportion to their number and demands they have made the camps have been too much a bugbear from the beginning, though it is plain—and the Unemployment Board itself acknowledges—that they are not suited for all. We imagine that the fifty vacancies that are now existing will soon be filled, and the Unemployment Board, which rightly desires to make the most of useful and productive work, will bo satisfied to that extent. The community as a whole should also be satisfied so long as no healths are jeopardised. In another way some assistance may be given to full time and profitable, as distinct from rationed and more or less artificial, work. The system will be extended from the northern cities by which certain classes of workers will have the option of taking sustenance at a low rate in place of local relief work, and for two smaller classes the change will be obligatory. As the sustenance will be paid by the Unemployment Board it is hoped that this will leave more funds to local bodies for the carrying out of useful and permanent schemes. On the whole, the settlement that has now been reached seems as satisfactory as any that could be expected.