DISTRESS IN BRITAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1929, Page 6

DISTRESS IN BRITAIN

PRINCE’S TOUR. OF MINING AREAS. (United' Press Association.—By Electric To 1 eg ra p h.—Copy r i gli t.) LONDON. Jan. 28. The Prince of Wales left for Newcastle 10-niglit, and, after breakfast to-morrow, lie begins the most :>■- markable tour ever undertaken by an heir to 'the throne. Simplicity will be the keynote of the motor tour which lie will make, covering one him deed of • the .distressed mining townships and villages in Northumberland, and Durham. To-morrow lie will briefly confer with the Lord Mayor of London and the officials of the Miners' Distress Fund, after which he will set out on an unannounced itinerary, because lie desires to meet the miners and their families in their own homes. He fears that if his route is published they would do their utmost to hide their poverty. ' He will set out daily with a packet of .sandwiches in hi.pocket, and will tour from sixty to seventy miles bcLvtee-.i nine ::i the morning and six in the evening, mailing friendly unexpected calls- at the miners' homes. He will also visit the training centres where the minus’ boys arc learning farming, with a view to emigrating, and where the girls are training as domestics.

QUESTIONS IN COMMONS

LONDON, Jan. 28. In the House of Commons. Lord Eustace Percy, in reply to a question, said that the Lord Mayor of I ondon’s Minors’ jFund had made payments up to January 25th totalling £197.127. The South Wales miners had rec-ei-vc! £94,250, and the Durham and No**ii umbcrlaiid miners £78,190 from the fund, totalling £570.000. I’he Treasury had not yet paid anything to the iund out of llie pound for pound \ote. This would he paid as require:!. Mr J. Batov (Labour M.P. for Dinham) : Isn’t it disgraceful that only £197,000 has been paid out of ilii.fund of over one million pounds, win u the miners and their families ate starving? Lord Eustace Percy: The disbursement of funds is dependent on District. Committees and organisations. The Times, in an editorial. says that, although there are welcome signs of an improvement in Die coal trade, nothing has occurred, or is likely to occur, that will falsify '.lie estimate that at least two hundred thousand of the miners never again will find employment in tlieir industry. Therefore, it says, it is fortunate that the Prince of Wales, who already has done much to make .'he Miners’ Relief Fund a success, shoal ] again lie concentrating public attention on the situation by his visil to Northumberland and Durham. In reference to Earl Percy’s explanation as to grants made, in the House of Commons, the Times editorial saysThe fact that the organisation is framed on right lines is ini additional reason why it should increase its aclivties without delav.