The Labour amendment to -the Address was rejected in the
House of Commons on. Thursday, February 17th, by 262 votes to 84. The Prime Minister repudiated the suggestion that the Government were doing. nothing to relieve the unemployed ; no Government had ever done so much. He reminded the Labour Party that State and municipal doles would, not suffice. " You will never solve this problem till the worker comes in and frankly considers what is best for the industry in which he is concerned." We depended on our export trade, and we could not recover it unless we lessened the cost of production. The Labour Party advocated the " right to work " ; why then were not the 50,000 ex-Service men allowed to work in the building trade, which was very short of labour ? The Government proposed to uphold those men's right to work. The Prime Minister ridiculed Mr. Clynes's astonishing assertion that there was no unemployment in Russia, where, in fact, the cities were depopulated. He suggested that the ,banks were showing an undue reluctance to co-operate with-the Government in establishing credits for trade with Central Europe. But an " aggressive, immoderate, greedy nationalism " in the new States was also preventing the revival of commerce.
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