The Prime Minister told the Labour Mayors in substance what
he told the House of Commons on Tuesday. The Cabinet had decided that there was abundant employment for ex-Service men in the building trades, which had 65,000 fewer skilled men than before the war and yet had far more work to do than ever before. Mr. Lloyd George hoped that the unions would accept the Government proposal that they should admit, apprentices up to twenty-six years of age, but, apart from this, the Govern- ment would employ ex-Service men on special housing schemes. As he declared on Monday, for the trade unionist builders to say " that 180,000 ex-soldiers in this country are to starve because ten years hence, when these houses are built., they (the trade unionists) may find themselves out of a job, is a perfectly selfish proposal." New arterial roads round London would be started with grants from the Road Fund ; the London County Council, it was hoped, would share the expense. Other roads would be made in the country. The foundry workers', iron puddlers' and railway waggon builders' unions were being asked to admit ex-Service men as there was a lack of skilled men in those trades. The Prime Minister added that the miners' strike would of course hinder the Government in carrying out their plans for reducing unemployment.
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