THE UNEMPLOYED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3487, 11 January 1921, Page 17

THE UNEMPLOYED.

SEVERAL DEMONSTRATORS ARRESTED. LONDON, January 4. The Labour Mayor of Islington ordered the police to eject the unemployed from the Municipal Library, which has been reduced to a dilapidated and insanitary condition. One thousand men gathered from many j arts of London and marched in a procession with bands playing and flags waving with the avowed intention of recapturing the library. A strong force of police frustrated them, and they next attempted f o storm the Town Hall and enforce an interview with the Mayor. Twenty-one were arrested after the mounted and foot police had made baton charges. The arrested men bore daggers, firearms, bludgeons, iron bars, and petrol. The Mayor states that the demonstrators are not genuine unemployed, but undesirables and unemplovables. He displayed a captured cash book revealing an improper distribution of public collections. The Mayor appeals to the public to support the funds for the genuine unemployed. DIFFICULTIES INCREASING. LONDON, January 5. There is a slump in the South Wales coal trade owing to the stoppage of French purchases. France, during the recent strike, purchased heavily in America, believing that the strike would last at least three months. Unemployment is rapidly increasing in the steel industry, and the goods being priced at more than the consumers can pay. January 6. The unemployed in Britain are estimated at over 1.000,000. The Labour Party has decided that they will not be represented on Mr Lloyd George’s Unemployment Committee. January 7. The Labour Party has decided that t will not be represented on Mr Lloyd George’s Unemployment Committee. SLUMP IN SHIPBUILDING. LONDON, January 5. Tile slump in freights, combined with the high cost of building, is causing the cancellation of many shipbuilding orders on the Tyne and Clyde. One firm on the North-east Coast had 14 contracts cancelled, and a firm on the Clyde has reduced its employees by half.