19 JUNE 1915, Page 3

In an excellent letter to the Times of Tuesday Lord

Cromer emphasized the importance of some decisive statement by Mr. Lloyd George as to (1) Trade Unions; (2) the profits of employers. While recognizing the value of Trade Unions so far as they perform their true functions, Lord Cromer finds that in the present crisis their supposed interests are "diametrically antagonistic to those of the community." The State requires the greatest possible output; the practice of the Trade Unions is to diminish output. Lord Cromer supports the proposal of the Spectator that Trade Union restrictions should be "abolished root and branch during the war." In that event the Government, he says, might pay the men's subscriptions to the Unions for theperiod of suspension. As for employers profits, Lord Cromer remark, that working men naturally demand excessive wages when they believe, rightly or wrongly, that their employers' profits are excessive. The figures ought to be investigated by some independent authority and published. Undue profits should then be rigorously cut down.