While unemployment continues to prevail in Britain -to the tune of some hundreds of thousands, any scheme for making them do work useful to the nation, inyreturn for the State pay they draw, deserves attention. In a recent mumber of "Truth" the idea of sending them to reclaim at least a portion of the Wash, the great shallow bay, 300 square miles in extent, on the borders of Lincolnshire and Norfolk, was examined. It stands to reason that an operation that would add this evea to England is preferable to paying millions of money to men year after year for doing nothing. If the land were not good enough to pay a rent that would cover the interest on Tie outlay, the land would at any rate -support a certain number of people permanently, and add substantially to the common stock of food. But there appears reason to suppose that much: of it would be most valuable agricultural land. One interesting fact mentioned by "Truth" is that during the war some of the German prisoners were actually set to this very work and the land they reclaimed is described as being so good that it will need no manuring for 12 years to come. There is usually a catch somewhere in these attractive-looking schemes: one such is that many of the unemployed are unhappily unemployable., But as 'Truth' says, "the essential point is that for all the money properly spent upon such a scheme the Government would acquire real property the labour employed will create an indestructible profit-yidding asset." The scheme is surely worth careful examination, not forgetting similar work that might be done in other parts of the country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.