UNEMPLOYMENT PAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 831, 27 November 1929, Page 9

UNEMPLOYMENT PAY

LIBERALS VOTE WITH GOVERNMENT

BILL READ SECOND TIME (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright' LONDON. Monday. The debate on the second reading of the Unemployment Insurance Bill was resumed in the House of Commons today. Mr. Joseph Devlin. Nationalist member for West Belfast, in his first speech in the present Parliament, said that for the first lime in his life he sympathised with the Government. As Parliament had admitted the principle of the unemployed allowance the only question was whether it was adequate. The Government, was dealing with the relief side of unemployment very modestly. A real national council representing all sides m ght do a good deal toward the solution of the problem of finding work. Mr. Tom Shaw, Secretary of State for War. said nobody regarded the Bill as ideal. The Government believed it represented as much as it could get from Parliament. The measure was only a stop-gap and was not intended to be permanent. The amendment previously moved by Major Elliot (Conservative! to reject the Bill, on the grounds tha: an unfair burden would be cast on juvenile insured persons, that the tests would be vague and unsatisfactory and that a grave additional bu'den would be cast on the Exchequer, was defeated by 299 votes to 213. The Bill was then read a second time. Forty-four Liberals voted with the Government. The Labour “left wingers,” who are most dissatisfied with the rates of the benefits under the Bill, supported the Government, against the amendment. However, they state that if there had been a division on the motion that the Bill be read a second time they would have abstained from voting as a protest.

EXTENSION OF TRADE

MINISTER REVIEWS HIS EFFORTS UNEMPLOYMENT CURE British Official T Vireless Reed. 10 a.m. RUGBY, Tuesday. Mr. J. H. Thomas. Minister in charge of the unemployment, problem, was asked in the House of Commons whether it was the Government's policy to develop and encourage export trade, as a permanent remedy for unemployment. He replied that he had already said on more than one occasion that the only real and permanent remedy for unemployment lay in the extension of our trade, both at Home and abroad. It was the (government’s policy to encourage by every means in its power the development of our export trade. With this end in view, he was in constant touch ■with the representatives of various industries, in order to ascertain from them what were their difficulties, and in what way the Government could properly help. Apart from his efforts in connection with the steel trade, he had already met representatives of motor, shipbuilding, and electrical trades, and he hoped as opportunity offered to meet representatives of many other industries.