There is no doubt this election will be mainly fought on two issues, (1) the Russian Treaty and (2) Unemployment. Th Government record in regard to relieving. unemployment is very bad, and the numbers of unemployed are rising very rapidly. The Secretary to the [Ministry of Labour states that the Jnumber of persons on October 6, 1924, recorded on the registers of the " Employment Exchanges in Great Britain was 1,215,600 Inasmuch as the figures of unemployed towards the end of January were 1,153,000 this shows that in the period in which the Socialist Go-}vernment was in office the total has. gone up by 61,000. The Socialists fare endeavouring to pretend that this is not the case and they never took office until February when the figures were more in their favour. As a thatter of fact the Unionist Jday, January 21, jond of it, The next day Mr. Ramsay MacDonal started to form his' Cabinet. Recently the totals have been bounding up.
As regards the Russian Treaty, the Bolshevist Government is very unpopular, and there is a strome Jobjection to lending or giving her any money in any circumstances whatever. Labour thinks that the Loan vill provide employment in this country, which, of course, is a myth.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.