UNEMPLOYED IN BRITAIN.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19156, 12 November 1927, Page 17

UNEMPLOYED IN BRITAIN.

INSURANCE SCHEME. INCIDENT IN HOUSE OF j COMMONS, j (BT CASLi:—rRSSS ASSOCIATION— COPTRICHT.) (ACSTBALIAH AND K.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received November 11th, 7.-10 p.m.) LONDON, November 11. A remarkable incident occurred i" the House of Commons when Mr JBeckett, a labour member, was speaking on the Unemployment Insurance Bill. He took a letter and a small parcel from his pocket and declared : "This is a letter from an unemployed man. the conditions of whose lite I know, enclosing his Mons and other medals. He is unable to get employment or any unemployment benefit, though he lias tramped his hoots otf seeking work. He tells me the pawn shops will not take medals, and asks me to hand them to Mr Baldwin, who will know what to do with them. "I do not know what the man means by that, but when I sit down I will hand them to Sir Arthur SteelMaitland, who can present them to his chief. I suggest they be framed and hung in the Carlton Club as a trophy of what Toryism lias done for the people who fought in the Great War."' Mr Beckett then walked round tho Speaker's chair and left the medals on the Treasury Bench fcesido Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, who later notified Mr Beckett that if he wanted Mr Baldwin to see the medals he had better send them himself. Mr Beckett has sent the medals with a covering letter to Mr Baldwin. Mr J. Wheatley said tho only reason for the Bill was to reduce the unemployment payments to youths of from eighteen to twenty-one years, and to force them to accept work below trade union rates. Mr H. B. Betterton. replying on behalf of the Government, pointed out that the Blanesburgh Commission had. made a unanimous report, and the Government was bound to act in accordance therewith. The Bill was read a second time and passed by 296 votes to 143, and mferred to a Committee of the whole House. "LABOUR'S HUMBUG." (AUSTRALIA* AN-B IC.Z. CABI.« ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, November 10. Mr E. Scrymgeour, in the debate on the Unemployment Insurance Bill in the House of Commons, declared that the state of unemployment was appalling. The Government was not attempting to i face it fairly and squarely. Mr E. C. Harmsworth pr L 'sted against Labour "members' humbug and hypocrisy. Labour was responsible for the accumulated debt of the insurance fund. The Bill was necessitated by the general strike. The use of tho torm "dole" harmed Britain in the eyes of people overseas, many of whom imagined that it was always the same million people drawing a dole wholly paid by the Government.