LABOR CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 October 1929, Page 5

LABOR CONFERENCE

SPEECH BY MR THOMAS

(British Official Wireless).

this day at noon.) RUGBY, October 1

The unemployment problem was discussed at Brighton Labour Conference to-day by the Lord Privy Seal, Mr J. H. Thomas, the Minister in charge of measures. taken for alleviating the situation.

The speech aroused special interest as it was the first occasion since his return from Canada that Mr Thomas has publicly made an exhaustive examination of the position. He said the Government would be judged rightlv because the Labour movement must make the right to work carry with it the right to live. Dealing with the difficulty and great expense involved in . securing relief through public works, lie' said that £1,000,000 df public motley' spent did not provide work for more than 2,000 directly and 2,000 indirectly. That was the answer to those who assumed that the mere pouring out of public money was a solution. Public works were hampered in two respects. First, in order to obtain the necessary Government grant they had to show a certain fixed percentage of unemployment in their district. The Govern-, ment immediately said, that no perrenta'ge of that kind was fair and they had removed that anomaly. A second difficulty was the question .of acceleration and when. Parliament met there would have;been sanctioned over £6,000,000 for municipalities. Since the Government took office, the Government had . .also sanctioned , . live years’ road progress, costing; £10,000,000, while programmes of £28,000,000 for unclassified roads were sanctioned and negotiations were taking place in connection with them. Proceeding, he referred to other directions in which the Government had endeavoured to stimulate emplqyment. Representatives olf railways, docks,- harbours, electricity and other industries were invited by the Government to private discussions as the result of magnificent schemes that would proyide work and would .help to make the/nation to be’more efficient had been ,submitted and sanctioned. ( ■. Regarding colonial developments he said > large schemes of improvement. ' that, would provide work for people at ' home were making good progress. Migration would also help the unemployment problem, but Canada he found had unemployment difficulties of its own at present. Trade development • with Canada, however, offered considerable prospects particularly as it' appeared that for every pound Canada spent with Britain she spent five pounds with the United States. He believed a Canadian market for English coal might be ehcouraged and without anyohe knowing except a few of his colleagues, Mr Thomas, said : he took a shipload df coal to Canada and | interviewed everyone within Quebec and Montreal areas who purchased large quantities of coal from the United States. Colliers of Nova Scotia had organised against him so he brought ■'.back some Nova Scotian coal, and lie was going to show the benefit of blending it with British coal. He next applied himself to steel and some of the biggest firms . were now going to order steel from Britain that they did ’ not order here before. Mr Thomas dealt at considerable length with his visit to Canada, de-' scribing "his efforts to get Canadian consumers to buy coal and steel from Britain. He pointed out that every 300 -tons df coal would provide work for twelve months for a British collier and ;enable him to keep his wife and family. JLt would also provide work for railwaymen, transport workers, and a hundred and one other trades. It was far better dealing with the unemployment problem to get permanent trade than to adhpt artificial means of providing work. He had succeeded getting* the Can-adian-i’acific Railway and Canadian National Railways, and Canadian Steamship Company to tes,t British coal, which was unknown to many of the collieries. He took a shipload to Canada. In' regard to steel lie could state definitely that one of the biggest firms in Canada was now going to order from Britain steel that they had not ordered bdfore. When he returned to England he called together eonlowners and repre- , sentatives of the steel industry and there was a full and frank discussion. Coalowners and steel manufacturers expressed their high appreciation and at the present moment schemes were being worked out to give effect to the missionary work which lie lind done. Lancashire cotton trade would also, in his judgment. benefit from his visit to Canada and at the present time preference given by Canada to this conn-| try was given conditionally on 50 per cent of the labour used in the article being British. Lancashire in the pest two years had suffered because the raw material of cotton essential to' tlioir goods must be brought from outside the British Empire. Therefore they were penalised in that particular trade. He hoped raw material would be excluded from these conditions and Lancashire benefit as a result. Mr Thomas said lie was aware of the difficulties of his task of dealing with the unemployment problem. “ T don’t make any promise of numbers at this moment,” he declared, “ but I am confident that when February comes our figures of unemployed will he different and better than under the late Government. The Minister reminded his hearers that though on the register to-day there were nearly 1,200,000 unemployed

there was actually engaged in industry 10u,000 more persons than during the boom period of 1914. The birth rate, however, was exceeding the death rate by approximately 200,909 } early and there were a far greater number of women engaged, in industry than ever before. Mr Thomas and Mrs Thomas have been invited to spend a lew days at Sandringham with the King. They will arrive there on Friday. It is understood the King wishes to discuss with Mr Thomas his Canadian tour.