The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1922. BRITAIN’S PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1922. BRITAIN’S PROBLEM.

The new Government in the Old Country has not been long in office before having to face, as it knew it must, the serious problem of unemployment. The debate on the Address-in-Reply was made the means for Labor voicing its views, some of which are practical, while others verge on the absurd. For instance, Mr. Clynes urged the necessity for developing foreign trade, with adequate schemes for public works, but Mr. Hastings asserted that, the real remedy was the capital levy. It is interesting to note the views of the Minister for Labor (Sir C. A. Montagu Barlow), who voiced the optimistic belief that,, notwithstanding the approach of the win ter season in Britain, the unemployment curve was slowly and steadily improving. On which facts that assertion was based we are unable to say, but nothing is more certain than that minimising the evil will be most unwise. The extent of the trouble is demonstrated by the fact that considerably over one hundred thousand million sterling has been paid out under the Unemployment Insurance Act, of which seventy millions was contributed by the employers and thirty-eight millions by the workers, apart from the relief afforded by the boards of guardians and from other sources. It is not doles that the unemployed want, but work at which they can earn wages, so that the schemes for constructing arterial roads lis a practical means to the desired end. Unfortunately work of this kind is so comparatively small in extent that it can only touch the fringe of the problem, and even with the help of afforestation and electric power schemes must fall far short of the amount required to cope with the problem. It would seem that Sir Alfred Mond’s scheme for utilising one hundred millions in Empire development comes nearer than any other proposal towards finding a remedy for this vast need. The. view he takes is that Britain must not look to Europe for a trade recovery, but to the Dominions, where two-thirds of the British trade was done before the war. There are two outstanding advantages in this proposal. Firstly, the Dominions need money for developing their resources, and they also require larger populations. By spending money for this deyelopment, both objects are attained. Secondly, the greater the population of the Dominion the larger will be fhe increase of the trade with the Motherland. Britain will thereby have a greater industrial activity and less workers, so that, apart from the natural increase in the population, there would be far better prospects for the workers and increased prosperity for the Dominions. It is only necessary to contrast a practical suggestion of this nature with such absurd remedies as the recognition of the Soviet as a means of reviving trade, or the maintenance by the; nation of all unemployed workers 1 —as advocated by Labor mem* bers —in order to realise the of the gulf that separates the two views—the sane and the insane. It is a remarkable fact that, fertile as Laborit.es are in suggestions for raiding capital in order’ to benefit the workers, they are singularly deficient in constructive ideas based on the common welfare of the whole community. If there is that boasted cameraderie amongst Labor in all countries, then there should be. a whole-hearted desire to mutually assist, whereas hostility is shown. Labor should first set its house in order before it can justly claim to give advice on its own affairs or the affairs of the nation.