NOT DEAD YET

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1929, Page 7

NOT DEAD YET

(Auckland Star). There is a robust cheerfulness about xvir Winston Churchill's Canadian references to the state of Britain that is very welcome. Labour is “in,” but Mr Churchill, although a prominent member of the Opposition, is not going about talking of blue ruin. He is telling Canadians that there is plenty of life in the Motherland and yet. One may be certain that there is deliberate purpose in this. An .impression that Britain is in decay is all too prevalent among colonials, if the term may he still used to designate dwellers in the Dominions. Wtien Mr Baldwin was in Canada two years ago he was at some pains to correct this impression. He told Canadians that there had not been a time when there was more life Britain, more keenness for education, more keenness for progress, more keenness for science and more keenness for discoveries. >He did not minimise the difficulties, but he showed that these difficulties had produced a determination to shoulder the burden manfully and go. forward along the road to progress. Mr Churchill echoes the description of the dole given by Mr J. H. Thomas as “the most perfect scheme for the support of the urn employed in any State or country.” The name “dole” ha? been the cause of much misunderstanding. It is really a comprehensive scheme of unemployment insurance covering some eleven millions of workers. The employers and the workmen contribute every week. The State also contributes, but in 1927 the contributions of the employers and the men amounted to thirty-four million pounds out of a total fund of fifty millions. Moreover, Mr Churchill says, what will surprise, many, that Britain is again the world’s greatest creditor nation. Britain needs a few more such publicity agents.