EMPIRE MIGRATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16706, 25 July 1928, Page 7

EMPIRE MIGRATION

THE ENGLISH ATTITUDE BEARING ON UNEMPLOYED PRIME MINISTER’S COMMENT (British Official Wireless.) iiee. noon. RUGBY, July The Prime Minister in Parliament today dealt with unemployment, especially with the points raised by the re. port of Industrial Transference Board. His statement was made in reply to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, who moved a resolution deploring the-inadequacy of the measures taken by the Government to deal with tlie tragic national problem of unemployment, and generally criticised the policy of the Government on the question.

The Prime Minister said the latest figures of the Board of Trade showed that unemployment was mainly in the great staple industries, particularly coal and cotton, but the general trade of the country had heen maintained. They demonstrated that unemployment was serious, though it. was local and confined. Development, in this country was going on—he did not think there was any doubt about that taking the country as a. whole—-and it. ought to be;perfectly possible for. the growing prosperity of •other areas in the south, as-in the Midlands, to afford some relief to the depressed areas If the : changed equilibrium of the more prosperous industries was a fact, then it should bo possible that whenever development was still proceeding from that, source help might be found for places where development. had been arrested. That really was the key to a large proportion of the report of the industrial Transference Board.

Reorganisation of industry, unfortunately, had meant a. certain amount of displacement of labor. Undoubtedly reorganisation was going on in this country to an extent which it had never done before, and lie found comfort- in the thought that industry would emerge, wlien we were through these times, better manned, better organised, and pulling together better than ever before. For the time being there was a surplus of labor. The aim of the unemployment policy should he first so far as possible to break up concentrated unemployment by the absorption of ns many unemployed as possible in areas that were prosperous. That was the view of the Transference Board, and he agreed with it-. GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS. With regard to migration, Mr. Baldwin said it was not a case, of shifting our unemployment burden on to the Dominions, or wishing to transfer men overseas simply because they were unemployed. What really mattered was the likelihood of a man making good in his new home. When a man contemplated what was before him here and compared his prospects with his chances overseas, lie should have the right to choose for himself and put his choice into practice. The question of migration had to bo further thrashed out between this" country and (he Dominions. The Government wanted to have the fullest and frankest communication, and it saw its way in certain directions to the adoption of a more active policy' of migration, both under the Empire Settlement Act and otherwise. In the matter of preliminary training, the experience of the last few years, and the reports on overseas training, had decided the Government to embark upon a substantial expansion of its policy. Ln this.connection Lord Lovatt, Un-der-Secretary. for the Dominions, was going out to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to follow up the discussion already initiated . by the Dominions’ Secretary during his recent tour. He would discuss fairly and freely with representatives of the Dominions all the matters which had been mentioned. . •.

With regard) to the export credits guarantee scheme, Mr. Baldwin said that would come to an end next year in the absence of a. further order. The Estimates Committee of the House ot Commons had conducted recently a searching investigation into the working of the scheme, and had expressed itself as satisfied that it was of practical advantage to the export trade. This certainly was not the time when they could allow any approved assistance of that kind to be dropped. The Government proposed in due course to introduce legislation extending the scheme a further two years from September next year. In conclusion, the Prime Minister announced that the Government would accelerate the execution of that portion of its scheme for giving railways relief from local taxation in return for a reduction of freight, charges on certain specified traffic, with a view to helping basic industries. TOO MANY RESTRICTIONS LABOR PARTIES CRITICISED 'Elec. Tel. Copyright —United Press Assn.' Australian and N 7. Press Association LONDON, July 24. The Daily Telegraph says: “The members of the Industrial Transference Board were set an arduous and thankless task. Their proposals do not seem to promise much immediate fruit. Overseas migration offers a natural solution for young mpii, but it is checked bv the high passage rates, excessively stringent medical examinations, and restrictions regarding callings the migrant may adopt, It is principally the Labor parties in the Dominions which arc responsible for the jealous contraction of the avenues of entry. “Mr. Ramsay MacDonald recently said tiie British Labor Party bad changed its attitude on migration, but., alas, it. finds itself up against some of its own worst faults, intensified by Labor parties in the Dominions! We hope the report will not escape the notice of Dominion statesmen.” The Times says: “What the Transference Board has in mind is that we should practice at home to the fullest extent Ihe policy we desire the Dominions also to adopt. When all that can be done at home is done, there are added possibilities of migration overseas. There is no intention of dumping unemployable persons in the Dominions, but Britain desires to make it easy for the vigorous, adventurous and self-reliant to try their fortunes in the younger lands of the Empire. The preference which the Dominions are ready to give the Motherland in matters of trade might |,o slijpn more markedly in matters of migration.”