In the House of Commons on Thursday, August 4th, Dr.
Macnamara, on the report stage of the vote for the Ministry
of Labour, defended his Ministry. He declared that the Con. ciliation and Arbitration Section had done a great work not only in composing industrial disputes, but still more in avoiding them. The Whitley Councils and the Thule Boards had been most useful, and it was his intention in. the autumn to give special attention to the Trade Boards in order to improve the machinery. As regards the enormous increase in the staff of the Ministry, he pleaded with pathetic earnestness that he was the victim of circumstances owing to the coal strike. The staff had risen from 14,981 in September, 1920, to 31,411 on July 1st. " What was I to do ? " asked Dr. Macnamara. " I did my best to mitigate the hardship of the situation." The task of dealing with unemployment had been tremendous, and the only possible alternative to increasing the staff was to allow the Ministry to collapse.
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