HOME POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1921, Page 5

HOME POLITICS.

UNEMPLOYMENT GRANTS. LABOR WANTS INCREASE. PROPOSAL REJECTED, By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Nov. 2, 8.10 pm. London, Nov. 1. There was a lively debate in the House of Commons on the Labor Party’s proposal to raise the grant to unemployed women from 5s to 10s, costing £6,000,000. Dr. T. J. Macnamara (Minister for Labor) said the Government was unable to find the money. Mr. Will Thorne (Labor) interjected: “In the name of commonsense, what is £6,000,000 in these days?” Dr. Macnamara also refused to raise the children’s grant to 2s weekly, but he was prepared to remove the limit regarding the number of children who receive a shilling, and also to raise the age in order to include all school children. Sir Robert Horne (Chancellor of the Exchequer) urged the House to reject the amendment. Increased taxation would only aggravate unemployment. There was still a floating debt of £1,400,000,000. The amendment was rejected by 145 votse to 112, amid Labor cheers and cries of “Resign”. The House read the Unemployment Levy Bill a third time. Questioned as to whether a reputable firm was prepared to run a weekly areoplane service to Australia in organised stages, covering the distance in five days, and if the Post Office was prepared to guarantee a ton of mail matter weekly, and what rate it was prepared to pay, Mr. F. G. Kelieway (Postmaster-General) replied that he would like a more definite understanding that it was possible to undertake the service suggested. Mr. E. Shortt, K.C.i (Home Secretary), replying to Mr. Grattan Doyle, stated that many persons of foreign extraction were connected with the Communists in Great Britain. The majority, though of alien parentage, were British subjects. Unsuccessful attempts had been made to recruit a Red Army, and the unemployed had been incited to violence by the Communists.