The Government suggested that, pending the Report of the Royal
Commission on Poor Law, the present Act dealing with unemployment should be continued, and that in the meantime they should continue, not to waste money, but to give it to the districts which required it most. After noting what he had done administratively to relieve unemployment, Mr. Burns pointed out that while be bad returned 273,000 out of the £200,000 grant to the Treasury, that money had been released by the Treasury for the purchase of thirteen thousand acres in Scotland for afforestation and the establishment of a school of forestry. In conclusion, he asked the House to endorse the Govern- ment's decision that the provision of pauperising relief in this country had gone too far, and should be arrested. The Closure having been carried by 318 to 39, the amendment was rejected by 195 to 146, or a majority of 49 votes. We cannot profess any satisfaction with this shrinkage of the Govern- ment majority after a debate in which the arguments of their supporters were, in the main, animated by a resolve to resist wasteful expenditure of the national resources.
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