HOMELAND AFFAIRS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1945, Page 6

HOMELAND AFFAIRS

UNEMPLOYMENT i LONDON, Dec. 6. ■ It is officially stated that unemployment in Britain has doubled in the last three months. The number of those wholly unemployed on October 15, was 232,537, as compared with 102,468 on July 16. The total comprised 131,416 men and boys, and 101,121 women and girls, as compared with the totals of 68,081 and 34,387 respectively last July. The publication has been resumed, for the first time since the outbreak of the' war, of unemployment statistics for each industry. KIDNAPPING Dec. 7. Another kidnapping, the third in 24 hours, was reported to Scotland Yard last night. A woman was seen on Mornington Crescent, in northwest London, struggling to get out of a car, but she was dragged back, and the car drove off. The police recovered her handbag, which fell to the roadway during the struggle. MEAT MARKET DISPUTE LONDON, Dec. 7. At th£ moment London is wonder--ing whether there will be a Christmas strike at Smithfield meat market. The Shopmen’s Committee there have recommended that work should cease on December 12, unless as assurance is given by the London Wfi°l es ?l e Meat Supply Association that discharged servicemen can return to their jobs at the market. Over one thousand workers are stated to be prepared to -refuse to handle Christmas meat supplies for the London area. The Transport and General Workers’ Union is enquiring into the position. CHRISTMAS CIRCUS “LONDON, Dec. 7. One holiday entertainment this year here will be a circus at Earl’s Court. London’s first since 1938. It will be run by a member of the family which first brought a circus to London one hundred years ago. ATOMIC BOMB. (Rec. 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, December 7. The executive committee of the New Commonwealth Society passed a resolution that Britain, America and Canada, the present custodians of the atomic bomb, should invite other nations to join them in establishing an international police force. All super-weapons for mass destruction should not be kept in national armouries, but handed over to this force. Mr. Churchill is President, and Mr. Attlee is. one of the vice-presidents of the British section of the society. BOMB DAMAGE (Recd. 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 7. The Board of Trade Journal announced. that German Vde bomb attacks in 1944/5 caused twenty-four million sterling damage io homes, almost all of which were in the Greater London area. More than thirty thousand claims were lodged weekly during the peal: period under the Government’s private chattel war insurance scheme, which cost eighty-six million sterling.