Mr. Chamberlain, describing his visit last week to Glasgow, where
he inspected Lord Weir's new form of house, said that "steel house" was really a misnomer. The houses are composed of wooden frames lined with steel outside, and inside there is a composition of pulp and asbestos that looks like brown paper. The houses, he said, were not "enlarged petrol tins," but were real houses, comfortable and home-like and not unplcasing in appearance. • As regards the exhibition houses in different parts of the country, they would be offered to local authorities, who would receive grants to enable them to set up the houses for inspection. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had already agreed to these grants. There would be no question of forcing the steel houses on people. Prospective owners or tenants would be able to see them and judge for themselves. Lord Weir was ready to estab- lish unit factories for the production of the houses at various centres and the output would be rapid. The cost of the houses would depend on the quantity produced, but in any case it would be lower than the cost of brick houses. Mr. Neville Chamberlain definitely connected this scheme with the necessity of clearing the slums.
