It is expected that the fourth winter of acute unemployment in Great Britain will be a crucial period for the' one and a quarter millions out of work, and their depéndants. Most of the optimism tic anticipations of a trade boom in 1923 have proved illusory. The greatly boomed Government schemes of which so much was expected have only touched the fringe of the evil and little is heard to-day of the Export Credit Guarantees, or the Trade Facilities Acts. Municipal ities have initiated schemes of relief work, party subsidized by the Government, but they have only provided work for a few thousands. The main ameliorative device 1s still the extension benefits under the Unemployment Instirance Acts, supplemented for the' destitute recipient by grants from the Boards of Guardians.
Fixed scales of Poor Law Relief _have now been adopted by most towns in the country. The amount appears to vary with the amount of Labour representation on the Boards of Guardians. Where there 1s no Labour representation the relief is on a semistarvation level. Where there is a Labour. majority it provides a better standard of living than that achieved by an -unskilled labourer yorking full time. The process sions and demonstrations that were such a conspicuous element in the unemployed agitation of twelve months ago are rarely seen now. Most of them were organized by Communists, who now appear to have reached the conclusion that the unemployed are a poor honest lof with no revolutionary fervour, for they have ceased to try and incite them to help themselves or commit acts of violence.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.