AN ENORMOUS PROBLEM

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11658, 24 October 1923, Page 5

AN ENORMOUS PROBLEM

UNEMPLOYMENT AT HOME

GENERAL RUSSELL ON MOTHER COUNTRY'S PLIGHT.

A SUGGESTED REMEDY. “The burning question in England to-day,” said Major-Genera] Sir Andrew Russell to a “New Zealand Times” reporter yesterday, after stepping ashore from the liner lonic, on which he returned from England, “is that of unemployment. There are a huge number of men in the Old Country, quite apart from tile men who have fought for their country and who a,re wanting work. You will gather come idea of the position when you know that there were recently 300,000 unemployed men under the age of 30 in the United Kingdom. That is not taking into account the men over this age, and the 40,000 disabled men who are unable to find work. “AN ENORMOUS PROBLEM.” “The whole unemployment question constitutes ap enormous problem. The State is suffering enormous economic loss, as all these men have to be fed ; must be given sustenance; and this is all so much waste, because they are producing nothing, and are becoming demoralised. “The question of unemployment becomes a burning one, not only for returned soldiers, whose sympathies are naturally for those men who fought beside them at the front, but for the whole of the community. It is obvious that the oa.pita] of the country must become seriously diminished by such a state of affairs, and without a corresponding amount of production by these men whom the country mus’t keep. With work we convey wages, but the whole system of doles and benefits as in great Britain at present is nothing less than a curse to both the giver and the receiver, and has been for years. A SUGGESTED REMEDY. “What can we do to relieve tho situation? This whole matter was considered at the meeting of the Empire Service league which I attended, and it was pointed out that one course of action was open. Take France, for example. She is a country who has lost sill her old markets on the Continent, and is not likely to regain them to the extent that she held them before the war. The costs of production, partly owing to the deflation of the currency, are considerably higher in England than on the Continent. Where compelled to do so during the war, countries have learnt to supply more of their own wants, yet England, with her 500 people to the square mille, cannot do without her big overseas trade. IMPERIAL TRADE. “The conclusion of the conference was that every effort should be made to increase the Alother Country’s trade with the dominions, with whom the per capita trade is higher than with any other country. But. in order to give the dominions the added purchasing power required for a bigger volume of trade, a forward policy of development of their latent resources in land and otherwise is necessary. Development of these resources involves, a demand for labour, and that demand must he met from Great Britain in order that the populations of the dominions may be kept pure. “Every man who leaves the United Kingdom to take up work in development schemes in the dominions means another purchaser of British goods and one less hunting for a job in the Old Country. The question before the dominions is—have we land which is lying Idle, have we resources which it will pay to develop, and if such is the case, what steps ought we to take to make use of these assets, not only in our own interests, but in the interests of the United Kingdom, and of the Empire?” CAPITAL NEEDED. Sir Andrew expressed his personal opinion that capital was needed, and that the Government should attract men with capital to the country, giving them a chance to develop such land as was waiting in North Auckland nnd to make money out of it, and stipulating that the country should he wanted for small farming in, say, fifteen or twenty years.