BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20595, 20 June 1930, Page 11

BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT.

EXPERT BODY SET UP.

CO-OPERATION OF PARTIES:

LIBERAL AID PROMISED.

By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright uritißh Wireless RUGBY, June 18

Sir Austen Chamberlain, formerly Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, raised tho question of unemployment in the House .of Commons this afternoon. Sir Austen said he thought it desirable the Prime Minister, Mr. Mac Donald, should define exactly the nature of the co-operation he asked for, and the scope of the activities in which he asked the other parties to tako part. Sir Austen said the cultivation of trade with tlio Dominions would give Britain an opening to markets of the greatest possible development. . The Prime Minister said a body had been chosen to consider the unemployment problem. It consisted of men of varied experience, and he believed they would work in full and harmonious cooperation together. He also believed that the custody of the work would be very safe in their charge. So far as the work done by the Minister in Charge of Unemployment was concerned to readapt British industrial conditions to enable them to compete in the world's markets in the future, that would bo continued, and no change that had taken placo in machinery must bo taken as a change in the purposes of the Government. Relations With Dominions. Qn'* tho question of economic relations between the Dominions and Britain, Mr. Mac Donald said it would bo vory difficult to find a time when goodwill was better and tho desire to co-operate was stronger than they were now. Tho Prime Minister mentioned that the Government had taken a body of Civil servants temporarily from their own departments, and they were devoting the whole of their attention, with their departmental experience, to this problem. The chief of them was Sir John Anderson, Permanent Secretary to the Home Office. Very important representatives of the Treasury, the Board of Trade, tho Ministry of Labour and the chief adviser of tho Economic Advisory Council had also been attached. This organisation had been brought together for the purpose of dealing with unemployment in its new phase, and of enabling more use to bo made of the coordinated experiences of the departments which had been dealing with the subject in a more piecemeal way. Mr. Lloyd George, the Liberal leader, said the Prime Minister had indicated that he was prepared to put into operation the invitation, which he had extended to both parties some weeks ago, to co-operate with tho Government in tho solution of what was after all a national problem. 1,000,000 Always Unemployed. ''l have accepted tho invitation," Mr. Lloyd George continued, "and the whole of tho conditions laid down by tho Prime Minister." Mr. Llovd George said unemployment had been aggravated by conditions which ho hoped were temporary, but they would always have 1,000,000 persons unemployed. That was the problem which tho Government ought to consider from a national point of view. Britain had still tho largest export trade in Europe, and as far as manufactured goods were concerned, she had certainly tho largest export trade in tho world. 1 110 agreed that mere expenditure of money upon things which were not in themselves productive would not only leave tho problem unsolved, but would aggravate it. Money ought to be spent with a view to reconditioning and re-equipping the nation, LABOUR DEPARTMENT. MOTION TO REDUCE VOTE. DEFEAT IN THE COMMONS. (Received June 39, 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, Jtyie IS. Tho Minister of Labour, Miss Margaret Bondfield, in replying to a debate on a motion to reduce the vote for her department, gave an assurance that out of grants totalling £36,000,000 for unemployment schemes no more than £2,280,000 was paid for material which was not British, and only that amount was paid because the material was not procurable in Britain. Tho motion was defeated by 259 votes to 230.