EYES ON DOMINIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 416, 26 July 1928, Page 11

EYES ON DOMINIONS

CURE FOR UNEMPLOYMENT

DISCUSSION IN COMMONS GOVERNMENT CENSURED (United P.A. —By Telegraph—Copyright) (Australian and K.£. Press Association.) (United Service) LONDON. Tuesday. Continuing his reoly in the House of Commons to Labour criticism of the Government’s unemployment policy, the Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, said the policy of relief work had outlived its usefulness, because the areas they were considering were not recovering. If the unemployment in those districts were to be spread evenly over the country the position would be far less serious. In London, with an insured population of more than 2,000,000, the unemployment was only 5 per cent., but it was 23 per cent, in Durham and 60 per cent in Leicestershire. Were the more fortunate areas going to put up a barbed wire fence around themselves? Referring to emigration and the view of the board that there is room in the Dominions for large numbers of xneu who are willing to work hard, the Prime Minister said the Government felt that State intervention was gradually turning the idea of a courageous adventure into a slow, restricted policy of emigration of labour. That was not the way in which, the Dominions were built up. Mr. Baldwin said the extension of women’s training centres was also in hand. In the residential centres of East Anglia they were teaching the rudiments of agriculture to young men ready to go overseas. A similar school was to be opened in Scotland. Overseas farmers who had visited the East Anglian schools were delighted with the quality of the men. Sir Robert Horne, Conservative member for Hillhead, Glasgow, said he hoped that, in spite of the obvious difficulties, arrangements might be made before long by which large numbers of those who found it difficult to obtain employment would be giveu freer opportunities in a new country. The objection of the Dominions to having Britain’s unemployed foisted upon them, however, was perfectly justifiable. “MISERABLE EXHIBITION’' Mr. Philip Snowden, Labour member for Colne Valley, Yorkshire, expressed the opinion that the Prime Minister’s speech was a “miserable exhi^tion.” If the Government wanted to restoro the iron and steel industry it should develop the great possibilities of the Indian Empire. The Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Churchill, said the problem was to liquidate the surplus 250,000 miners —the great aftermath of the Labour disputes of 1926. The Government s rating scheme must constitute the main effort in dealing with the present difficult situation. The Government had decided, as an extra effort, to bring a portion of that scheme into operation before the rest could be achieved. Mr. Macdonald’s motion of censure was defeated by 331 votes to 151.