CHANGING CONDITIONS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16706, 25 July 1928, Page 11

CHANGING CONDITIONS

IMPERIAL PROBLEMS UNEMPLOYED AND MIGRATION DISCUSSION IN COMMONS (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assti.i (Australian Press Assn.—United Service! (Received Julv 25, 4 p.m.) LONDON, July 24. Continuing liis statement, in llu> House of Commons, Air.' Baldwin, 'n reference to unemployment, pointed out that the policy of relief work had outlived its usefulness because the areas they were considering were nut recovering. If the unemployment in these districts was spread evenly over the country the position would he .far less serious. In London, with its insured population of over 2,000,000, unemployment was only "> per cent., but it was 26 per cent, in Durham and CO per cent, in Leicestershire. He asked were the. more fortunate areas going to put up a barbed wire fence around themselves. Referring to emigration and the view of the Transference Board that there is room in the Dominions for large numbers of men who were willing to work hard, the Prime .Minister said, the Government felt that State intervention was gradually turning the idea of courageous adventure into a slow restricted policy of the emigration of labor. That was not the way the Dominions were built up. Preliminary training centres for the Colonies proved so satisfactory that the Government had decided on a substantial extension, white women’s training centres also were being extended. The residential centres at Fast Anglia were teaching the rudiments of agriculture to young men ready to go overseas, and a, similar school was being opened in Scotland. Overseas farmers who had visited the Fast Anglian schools were delighted at the quality of the men. Sir Robert Horne hoped that despite the obvious difficulties arrangements might be made before long whereby large numbers of those who found .it difficult to obtain employment-would bo given freer opportunities in a new country. The objection of the Dominions In having our unemployed foisted upon them, however, was perfectly just ili'aible. Following tlm Prime Minister’s statement on unemployment and migration, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Rnm-

~av MacDonald, said the. Government was doing its best to InJI the country into a stale of mmptaeeney, hut the t,remOr„ious and unexpected leap of the. official unemployment, figures showed that the problem was threatening to master us. The report of the .Industrial. Transference board stressed emigration as a remedy, but we should first be most careful that our own country was being developed. (Labor cheers). there were roads to be constructed, slums to he cleared away, and' other essentials wherebv the wealth of the nation might bo added to. So far as emigration was concerned, the report of the Transference Board was one o? despair. It was the most damning contribution ever made against the Government*and its handling of the unemployment, problem.

Mr. J. Wheatley said every unemployed person should be paid bis full workshop wages for every day he 'Was out of work. “ I would use Hie navy to sink every ship which brought sweated goods from abroad. 1 would apply something stronger than tnriffs, which only result in increasing, the prices of goods and the profits of proiiteers. I would tax earned incomes over £2OOO to t Do extent, of 20s in the pound until I set industry going. I would tax unearned incomes over £IOOO. I ask people to make sacrifices, double the housing subsidy, and halve Iho rents of working-class houses. ’ ’