Mr. Lloyd George said nothing in his speech at the
conference held by the Building Trades Industrial Council on Tuesday that he had not already told the public. As in former speeches, he tried to put as bold a face as he could on the housing imbroglio by making the most of the 500,000 houses for which " schemes had been signed " by Local Authorities. He tried to soothe the some- what ruffled feelings of the building trade by assuring them that he did not agree with the accusations of " profiteering " made by Sir Tudor Walters, Chairman of his Advisory Council, whose statement he had indeed not even seen. Had he believed any such thing of the building trade, he would not have appealed to them as he was now appealing, or have asked the House of Commons to subsidize the builders to the extent of £150 a house. As to the suggestion that they had " come rather late to the builders," he considered that the delay of four months " had been inevitable in order to convince the public that it was necessary to take a step never taken in the whole experience of the country." So practised a reader of the public mind as Mr. Lloyd George must have been well aware that the public would have welcomed any proposal to produce houses and not " signed schemes."
Previous page
