BRITISH RE-EMPLOYMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21743, 7 March 1934, Page 8

BRITISH RE-EMPLOYMENT

I nemployment is declining in .Britain at an accelerating rate. On February 19 there were 533,729 more persons in employment than at the same date last year, this representing an average monthly return to work of 45,000, which, it must be admitted, is a wonderful achievement on the part of industry, even in so j populous a country. But the total of those re-employed in the four weeks : to the date mentioned was no less than 71,159. This is the most arresting fact in the brief history of the recovery in trade. Because there is sitili a tremendous deadweight of unemployment, the "hard core'' of which gives unceasing concern to ail thinking people, there is a common tendency to concentrate attention on the bad and overlook the significance of the good. For months the statistics have revealed a position that is consistently changing for the better, but through habit of mind the pessimistic simply say "the problem is still acute. ' No sane person can expect a sudden and spectacular recovery. It is the desire for this kind of miracle that probably leads this political group and that to preach their policies of action, forgetting that no dictatorship can force the products of industry upon the world, that until consumption increases unemployment will remain a national problem. World traders naturally have their eyes fixed on far horizons and admittedly many of them are still forbidding, but fortunately for Britain a considerable amount of the labour ''slack'' can be taken up by the domestic market. The renewal of in- j dustrial activity is largely due to the j opportunities that have opened up I within the country through the tariff, I but the diminution of unemploy- i ment thereby brought about is j nevertheless balm to a griev- j ous ill. Because of the new | industrial situation created by the ! adoption of protection Britain alone j among the nations was given a} chance of reducing her unemploy-j ment in a normal manner before j world influences could produce com-1 mon revival. This chance has been j seized and it is a matter for rejoic-! ing throughout- the Empire that so soon after the National Government I faced a situation of imminent disaster re-employment should have j made such a notable advance.