BRITAIN’S PROBLEM

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 101, 28 March 1929, Page 7

BRITAIN’S PROBLEM

WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED,

LIBERAL PARTY’S PROGRAMME. MR LLOYD GEORGE’S SPEECH, (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright). (Australian Press Association. —United Service.) LONDON, March 26. Mr Lloyd George, the leader of the Liberal Party, spoke at the Albert Hall this evening in support of his party’s programme to deal with unemployment. Mr Lloyd George, who was vociferously acclaimed, spoke for 75 minutes. - The address was relayed to thirteen towns, along 2000 miles of the main trunk line, and was heard by 50,000 people. The chairman was the Marquis of Reading. “My pledge, based on tested proposals, promised a reduction of unemployment to normal within a year, on work nationally essential and without additional taxation,” Mr Lloyd George stated. “I vainly implored the Government during the session to grapple with the problem, and I am now directly appealing tq the country. The Tory programme will not be launched until the eve of the election, when there will be no time to criticise it. Labour has eighty inconsistent propositions. There are, including dependants, nearly four million sufferers from unemployment. The cost for the necessities of existence is huge. “Since the Armistice been plenty of work, namely, the reconstruction of British roads to meet the demands, of new traffic. The London streets carry 250 vehicles, compared with every 100 in 1921. The Ministry of Transport accepted plans, but did nothing. The' Government were vainly urged to link up existing roads. It is a Government of missing links. The improvement of the slum areas will be futile, lacking improved communications. We propose to develop the telephone system in England, which stands only tenth in this connection on the list of nations. We will deal with agriculture and drainage, restoring two millions of water-logged acres to cultivation and providing employment for the, workless.” “Critics now admit that every million sterling spent on roadmaking would employ four thousand men in the cities and five thousand in the country, but they object that it .is wasteful to spend £200,000,000 in two years. We spent. £5,000,000,000 in two years in wartime, and have nothing to show for it. We have nothing to show for the present dole expenditure. Is not that waste? “Our programme is for five years, but we are concentrating on the first two years, after which the recovery in trade will increase the difficulty in obtaining labour for roadmaking. We would finance the scheme by a loan of, say, £200,000,000, over five years, on the security of the road fund and the value created by the new roads, _ repaying it from the annual increase in the road fund, which will suffice, despite Mr Winston Churchill’s raid of £30,000,000. MONEY FOR ARMAMENTS. “Other projects would "be financed by taking £6u0,000 off the insurance fund, while £1,200,000 would be spent on wages instead of the dole. We are spending £175,000,000 on armaments tms year, compared with £75,000,000 before the war, when the German fleet existed. What is the use oi peace pacts if armament expenditure is not reduced? Sir Austen Chamberlain’s spirit of Locarno is badly corked nowadays. He is only ‘nailing rainbows on the sky,’ and conspiring with France to make them a tricolour. A hugely armamented peace is a swindle. We took the greatest risks for war. Let us take some for peace, which, with progress, will flnanee even more extensive schemes. We do not want Dictators. We, want men who know their job. They are plentiful: but they are not in the Government. Let the nation see to it.” CAUSES OF UNEMPLOYMENT. LABOUR MINISTER’S SPEECH. (British Official Wireless.) (Received March 28, 9.5 a.m. RUGBY, March 26. During the debate on unemployment in the House of Commons last night, Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, Minister of Labour, stated that the principal causes of the present unemployment were the decline in emigration—since the war it was 350,000 below normal—and the decline in foreign trade, which was estimated to have lessened. the employmentcapacity of British industry by between 700,000 and 800,000. The Government aimed at stimulating trade by preserving the home market through safeguarding, and helping industry to regain the foreign market by the derating scheme. The Minister added that this week’s unemployment figures would show a drop, which was due entirely to the improvement in trade. FIGURES SHOW REDUCTION. (British Official Wireless.) Received M.arcb 28, 9.5 a.m. 'RUGBY, March 27. On March 18 the total number of unemployed in Great Britain was 1,-182,500. This was 86,339 less than a week before, but 116,423 more than a year ago.