DERELICT AREAS

Evening Star, Issue 21819, 7 September 1934, Page 1

DERELICT AREAS

BRITAIN REMAKING WHOLE TOWNS Goaded by public opinion the Government it at last taking steps to try to solve the terrible problem of our derelict industrial areas (says the ‘Children’s Newspaper’). Investigators have been- appointed whose task is to suggest what measures should be taken to remedy the evil in each district. ' . There are at.least four areas in this island where the term derelict applies, a word which'implies much more than distressed. For the distressed area may be said to be hut passing through a very serious state of unemployment, which the new Act should to a great extent relieve, as under its provisions the State will relieve local authorities of 40 per cent, of their payments to able-bodied unemployed. ■ The problem of the derelict areas, however, is that their native industries are never likely to , recoyer; there are no alternative industries, and the people are doomed to idleness and poverty for the rest of their lives. One of the towns suffering in this way is Jarrow, whose 36,000 inhabitants formerly relied on the shipyards on the Tyne., There is silence in those shipyards, and there are skilled artisans, once workers in -them, who have not held a tool against a piece of steel for six or seven years. There are, too, young men who have never handled a tool at all—hundreds of them with nothing to do but loaf about.

Wo find the same thing in South Wales, where whole villages are beyond self-help; in Cumberland, and in parts of Fife and Lanark. Local aid, whether official or voluntary, cannot relieve the physical and mental distress in these places, which have been described as being without a future. Only a boldly-planned national effort can solve their problem, which requires large-scale planning and large-scale finance. It 'is impossible to remove whole populations, though many of the younger _ members might be found opportunities elsewhere, so new industries will have to be established in these areas, uneconomic perhaps at first, but at least providing work so as to restore the morale of those who have set their hands to no tasks for years.- It has been suggested that the Government should send a director with a staff to each area, there to plan new' industries and to train the workers to new occupations. The deterioration of _ humanity has gone on far too long in these areas, and they have become a blot on the nation as a whole. The nation cannot allow sections to die away helplessly, and the Government must, be forced to take special action and without delay.