(Other Countries Worse Off Than Great Britain: The Effect of the Slump in Silver London, Mar. 10.
Mr. Lloyd George; the Liberal Yeader, initiated in the House of Commons to-lay a debate on unemployment, He mentioned that when the Labour Governnfent came nto office the unemployment figures were 1,100,000, whereas the latest Brrures were 1,539,300, Mr. Lloyd George maintained that Who time had come for avery candid and serious review of the whole position, not so much in a spirit of criticism or censure, but, if possible, the spirit of converting the House into a Council of State.
He thought that the House of Commons ought to shoulder its supreme responsibility in the matter and insist on action being oaken, Everyone would admit, he aid, that the Minister in charge of the unemployment problem had worked hard, but, so far as his remedies were concerned, he had taken Yeo narrow, limited and time view of his responsibilities.
Mr, Lloyd George advocated a big tohome of road development as the mest useful means of employing Jabour.
The Lord Privy Seal and "Minister of Unemployment", Mr. J.-H, Thomas, replying, admitted that the unemployment figures were bad, but dectaved that the Govern sent, were in no way responsible.
There was, he said, a world reaction in trade, Germany had 4,258,000 unemployed, while. Italy had 408,000 wholly' and 21,000 part-unemployed. In America one Senator had spoken of 6,000,000 unemployed and another had put the figure at 1,000,000, Based on the same data as our figures, Mr. Thomas. believed that the figure would be nearer 6,000,000.
The real cause of our abnormal situation, he continued, was the slump in raw material. For the past six months, he declared, cotton had been falling, with the result that no manufacturer would take the responsibility of giving orders. Compared with twelve months ago, there was an increase in Lancashire alone of 146,000 unemployed. What was true of cotton was equally true of wool. It was also true of silver.
Mr, Thomas pointed out the repercussion of the drop in the price silver on the Lancashire cotton trade, which bought raw material on a gold basis and sold the manufactured ariteles to countries on a silver standard, a sulting depreciation of £30 in every £1,000.
The repercussions of the recent Amreican slump, Mr. Thomas added, were also being felt here, and we were also feeling the effects of the new Australian tariff, Mr. Thomas gave an account of the schemes already sanctioned by his department to provide employ ment. These involved £65,000,000 in developing railways, docks and harbours, water supply, electricity and roads. There were factors, however, which gave encouragement He believed that the reductions the bank rate would be helpful, and he pointed to the better aspects of the shipping industry, which produced 56 per cent. of the world's tonnage and showed a decrease of 8,000 unemployed for the year—British Wireless through Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.