UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1921, Page 5

UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

THE CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN. MR. W. T. JENNINGS’ IMPRESSIONS. \ The unemployment problem is very acute in England and Canada, according to the observations of Mr. W. T. Jennings, M.P., who has returned to New Zealand after an absence of seven months. The position in England was particularly impressed on him at Manchester and Liverpool, where he saw large numbers out of work. At Liverpoo] during his visit there was a queue formed outside the labor bureau office that must have numbered six or seven thousand men. On another occasion, outside of Woolwich, near the arsenal, a meeting held at night was attended by eight or ten thousand men and women, all of whom were out of employment. In other parts of England similar instances were to be found and at Glasgow it was even worse, there being thousands out of work in that city, and it was apparent that a good deal of poverty existed.

As a relief measure the Government was allowing an unemployment payment of aboflt 15/- per week. The position at Woolwich could be attributed to the fact that the munition works had closed down and the former employees had not been assimi’ated in other industries. The general cause, in Mr. Jennings’ opinion, was* the slackness of trade generally throughout England. In Glasgow the. reason given to him was that owing to disputes over wages shipwrights and others in this line of business were sending their vessels to Hamburg to be repaired. Canada also had the unemployment problem, which seemed to be world-wide.