LEAVING HOME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18953, 29 August 1923, Page 7

LEAVING HOME

BRITISH ARTISANS. WITHOUT WORK FOR YEARS., Press Association—By . Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, August 17. ' A special commissioner of the Daily Herald writes, that Britain’s best artisans are men wljo have been workless for two or three years, and axe fast leaving the country., “1 recently visited Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Coventry,” he continues, “where the story is the same. In,- Manchester, numbers of skilled engineers are leaving for Canada on the offchance of crossing the border into the United States. Every boat takes somo men whom Britain cannot afford to lose. “The position on the Clyde is worse. The Clyde engineer is recognised m America as unequalled, yet Britain, by her incapacity to find work, is making a present of these men to her great industrial rival. Many big Birmingham engineering firms have lost skilled engineers, who have gone to America and Australia. They were 'driven out of Britain by low wages. “Emigration is thinning the ranks of Coventry’s skilled workers, and if trade ever does improve, their absence will present a serious problem. A > tradeunion official said: ‘The number of skilled men emigrating is abnormal. Most go to America and Australia, the majority paying their own passage money. Craftsmen who have spent £0 years in perfecting themselves get less than labourers, uur . rate of pay is 56s a week. Many men are 'forced to work piecework, yet finish in debt.’ ” I