TRAINING UNEMPLOYED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 April 1939, Page 4

TRAINING UNEMPLOYED

OBSERVATIONS BY BRITISH POLITICIAN. Discussing remedies for the increase of unemployment in Britain, Sir Arthur Salter, M.P., says:—We should at once —and urgently —increase the training of unemployed, especially the young, for the kind of work for which the demand is bound to increase—for example, as mechanics and other ground men for the Air Force, and in generalised mechanical skill which will facilitate quick adaptation to varied forms of semi-skilled work. In this connection I think that some tightening of the conditions under which unemployment relief is given may be required. Reluctance to move should not be accepted as a sufficient reason for refusing- opportunities of employment, and a young man should not be entitled to refuse training offered to him and still draw public money. There is great danger in the close approximation of relief rates to wages. It is greatly to the credit of the vast bulk of workers that this has not diminished their ardent desire to get work. But there are sections where the evil exists, and may increase, and the relief rates now given should certainly have as a counterpart the insistence upon conditions which will secure that employment is accepted when it is available.