20 JANUARY 1933, Page 6

The Recorder of Leeds observed on Tuesday that he thought

he would not be indulging in any political statement when he said that there was a great deal of necessarily subsidized idleness in the country, and the result was a criminal calendar such as he had before him. He-would not seem to be indulging in any very intelligent statement either, if his words are, correctly reported. For if the suggestion is that unemployment leads to crime, that is obvious. The astonishing thing is that it does not lead to more: If it is that the dole leads to crime, that is plain, nonsense. The dole, whatever minor defects there may be in its administration, has been the social salvation of this country for the past dozen years. Unsubsidized idleness would have plunged us in disaster long ago, Jexus.