BRITISH UNEMPLOYED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 29 August 1929, Page 8

BRITISH UNEMPLOYED.

MR. J. il. THOMAS' PROPOSALS. •‘MODERATE AND SENSIBLE.” Air. J. H. Thomas has outlined Ins schemes for alleviating unemployment. Whim, analysing the problem of uueinplbyinent lie followed urthodox lines, ami lie .admitted that the ultimate remedy is Uot to be derived from the exceptional measures that the Government ot the' day. seconded by the municipalities, may be able to take, but from ait improvement of the trade and commerce and industry ol the country, writes the London correspondent of the Auckland “Herald.” He had no illusion as, to the existence ol a “bottomless pit from which money can be obtained,” and therefore he discarded, as common sense required, the notion that mere spending ol money could provide any lasting cure. , In his- speech Mr. Thomas made the following points and put forward the following proposals: Helping Home Industries.—“l am going to explore every avenue to see whether we cannot make the things we are importing.” Steel Trade. —As a result of inquiries the railways are giving orders as fains they can for home-manufactured steel sleepers in place of the present types, for which .Ll^oCfOOO 1 worth of timber is imported every year. Inquiries are being made in regard to ‘steel—or concrete—telegraph poles, steel railway waggons and steel coaches.

MILLIONS FOR HIGHWAYS. Highway Schemes. —Five years’ programme ol trunk road development to tie authorised, costing .19,0U0,1XJ0. . Work oil secondary roads and bridges sanctioned to cost -£28,000,(JOB in period of six years. The £37,0(J0,C0t total expenditure to be financed ' out ol the existing road fund.

Waterloo Bridge. Reconstruction ‘.‘ought to be got on with absolutely at mice.”

Railway Development.—The six and a half millions passenger duty, “wisely remitted by the late Chancellor,” will be spent on new engines, extensions or sidings, stations, better goods equipment, etc. . Com pan i e.s advised to proceed with (1) the electrification of Liverpool Street Station; (2) underground extension from Finsbury Park.

A committee is to be set up to consider the construction of an outer London goods railway. The report, which will be published in a few weeks, on privately-owned railway waggons ’is to receive immediate attention.

Air. Thomas' speech earned as many cheers from Conservatives as it did glowering looks from Socialists. Everyone was curious to discover how the Lord Privy Seal had acquitted himself. The old members frankly did not expect to be startled; it was the newcomers to the Socialist Party, whose hopes of the spectacular had not been quenched by experience of Lhe unemployment problem, on whom the Hat blow of disappointment fell.

MR. CHURCHILL'S BANTER. Air. Thomas fspoke .for nearly an hour and a-lialf in his slow, accented style, and disclosed a programme that Air. .( liurchiil afterwai-ds admitted to Uv !‘v.<*.r.v«- moderate, and sensible.” Many of his measure- were <ontimi’atioiis of ; the< policy of the last Government,” add as they were one by one announced they drew cheers steadily from the Opposition and only murmurs from the Alinisterialists. In the combat between Mr. Thomas, eager to come by money for bis medicines, and Air. Snowden, on guard in front of. tlie Treasury sale, it was easy to discern, declared Air. Churchill, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had won the first exchanges. Air. Snowden, who can never bear his rival’.s .banter, took this very ill; his colleagues remained serene. .“Be of good heart,” Mr. Churchill besought them cheerfully. “The benefits of derating will come to your aid soon, and, neither of the Oppositions is likely to let off a general strike against your administration.’ Some wholesale banter of the party followed, which the seasoned members enjoyed, but which brought the green ones to the verge of direct action. Tlie ex-Chancellor talked of the Liberal missionaries—like Sir William Jowitt—“who has gone to dwell among the heathen and share their victuals,” and of the Clydesdale group who, ‘dreaming of clearing a patli to Utopia for toiling millions, have onlyset up a ladder for Sir Oswald Mosley to climb into office and power.”

Tlii.s pricked the neophytes to their first unparliamentary interruptions. Air. Snowden had 1 been persuaded to announce before the unemployment statement was made that he will not enact the second half of his predecessors’ Budget. The bookmakers telephone licenses, the revenue from tlie totalisatof, the reduction in duty on- liquor licences, the privileges of buying half-bottles of spirits elsewhere tlian in public houses —nil these tilings therefore lapse. Air. Churchill reproached bis opponent for this.' fresh fit of repudiation, and then passed! to a survey of the King’s Speech. “If,” lie said, “you seein to repeal the McKenna duties, do not add a callous period of uncertainty to folly.' And on the amendment of the! Trade Disputes Act lie sternly warned the Government not to tempt the two Oppositions to a struggle.

- A SERIOUS NOTE. A terrific homily on the rise oi tlie Socialist Party ended tlie speech. Air. liilir'chill's. . denunciation of its “doctrines. of monstrous error” was made at the pitch, ,of. liis voice—necessarily so since most of the back-benchers did their best to drown him. “It is now their fate,” finished Air. ( hurt-hill, with a gesture of .scorn which swept in the heads of the Government, “now their punishment to

disappoint those who believed in them and to discredit or explain away the doctrines by which they have come to groat authority.” The final phrases of the speech were grim and menacing. “So long as you administer and carry on the King’s government,” was the effect of Mr. Churchill’s warning, “so long will you be supported. But once attempt any of the rash innovations for which Socialism' stands, and you will be swept headlong from your place. Mr. J. Maxton (Labour —Bridgeton) said he would be .dishonest if be did not express were plainly bis complete dissatisfaction with the King’s Speech and with Mr. Thomas statement. “I hope not to make difficulties for the Government. T am willing to give the Prime' Minister time. But there i,s something 1 a in not prepared to he patient with. Wo have no right to be sitting here with incomes of at least £4OO a, year while the men and women

who send us here clo not know where to-morrow's dinner is coming from. C ‘l am going to promise active iiearty support and work for the Government on one condition —that they will so arrange the affairs of this country that no unemployed man. his wife, or his child shall go in dread of starvation The machinery is there. It is only for the Government to make it act efficiently.”