THOUSANDS UNEMPLOYED

Chronicle (Levin), 13 April 1949, Page 5

THOUSANDS UNEMPLOYED

Press Association)

Stowaways Say Canada Is No Piace To Live In

(Per i

AUCKLAND, April 13. "Forty thousand are . unempioy'ed iii Van'cbtiyer inbUsaiiRS more are joDfeS$ • tHrbdgHodt CinaM. Ihe ci'ime wave thbfe. this. Wihier ,vu,s ihe tyerst in histp'ry, Spup Mtchens have returned ,fo?. .the first time sinee tHe. 'depresfiiln ^ and ^anad;a is hp, place ih iwhich . tb' live. That ife Why We stbWed aWay.'This ekpianatibh was giveh. by four young men aboard th,e Aorangi when it ^rrived from Vancouver iast nig'ht. They Were waitihg t'6 oe taken ashofe by th'e, poliefei ahd willingly told of the piight of thousands of other young mbn in Canada. Evel-ythifig Seemetl Hopeless; "In the Cahadian winter the j'pbiess can do three, things — ^sbarve, turn crimmal; or live on charity. x^or , the last four monjfhs K'en Ne.vits and I have been r'eiying on ,he Salvation Army, k .marveilous organisation," said 22-year-bi'd xouufci t Kixig. ''Everything beeiiied xicpeiess in Vancouver ahd as Wb Libard a lot aooat New Zealand, We cairie aboard tne Aorangi. We dbii't mind serving in prison as -long as we don t nave to go . back. "Soup kitchens and otner ..rejief have be'en organised in VancbuYer," ne continued, "and conditions durinsr.the winter. came meaf to those oi the depfess'ion. The . Caha'diah Government did not Seeni to be domg much about the uriemploymerit. It sent t-he Minister of Fisheries from Ottawa t'b inveStigate the situation, but his arrivai in Vancouver has been -treated as a joke. * "The Marshall Aid Plan has had a lot to do with the high unemployment and has seriously decre.ased fruit, logging and the fish trade with Britain, who is unwilling to pay American dollars whe'n sh'e cdri get her produce elsewhere,'' said Nevits, who is a Salesmari, aged 24. 'The. result is that you can see a coiiple of do^en men "Outside any 'church on any day begging a meal ticket or a bed for the night. Gives Somb Relief. King explained that the compulsory unemployment insurarice scheme gave some reiiel. With'out being able to get 12 dollarS a we£k — the cost of living was abbiit 20— a man had to work and pay ih fbr 160 consecutive days, but it wak hard work for 160 days withbut being fired. "If you are, or quit, you get no benefit." Like King and Nevits, Austin Reid and Higgiiis, both 25, have been out of work foi months. All any of them wanted to do was to fmd a place where they could work and live with some security.