ONE MILLION IDLE

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1687, 17 November 1925, Page 6

ONE MILLION IDLE

BRITAIN'S LANGUISHING

INDUSTRY,

The industrial plight of Great Britain is steadily getting worse, and with the prospect of facing a winter of great depression, is causing much anxiety. The unemployed now number 1,354,100, which is an increase of 156,559 in five weeks, and 191,'220 more than a year ago.

Everywhere there are urgent appeals for some action on the part of the Government to relieve the situation (says Herbert Bailey in a despatch from London to the Vancouver Daily Province). Premier Baldwin is accused of having no policy, and his letter on behalf of the Tory candidate at Stockport is being cited as proof that he is helpless; from the Tory ranks there are demands that Baldwin either do something or quit. The call of Sir George (Hunter, head of the world-famous shipbuilding firm of Swan, Hunter, Whigham, and Richardson, of Wallsend; for a thorough inquiry into the state of the country, receives extraordinary publicity in the Daily Mail, his letter to Premier Baldwin being quoted in full, while two leading columns are devoted to it as well.

“Something is wrong with our industries,” writes Sir George, “ and an inquiry into them is much more needed than an inquiry into the coal mining trade. Does the Government realise that if the present conditions continue they must lead to national bankruptcy and ruin, that the plight of the nation is growing steadily worse?” The plan for an inquiry, as suggested by Sir George Hunter, is said to be useless, and wbat the nation needs i: action. The industries which are badly hit by the depression are the oldest, in the country, such as iron and steel, shipbuilding and coal. New industries are flourishing, and concerns dealing in raw material, and the development of mandated territories in Africa report prosperity, and urge that in 15 years Great Britain will be stronger than ever awing to the possession of ■these materials. Labour leaders are trying to profit by the situation by saying that it shows the failure of capitalism, hut Sir George Hunter retorts that “the Labour policy of high costs and low production i 9 an absolute failure.”