The Week in Parliament
Tim Prime Minister announced the proposals of the Government for relieving the distressed areas in the House of Commons on Monday: It came' as some- thing of a surprise to members to learn that the Exchequer had already provided £1,700,000 more than the _Budget 'Estimates for the assistance of the unemployed in general and of the distressed areas in particular, and that this expenditure was expected to rise to over four millions next year. .
Training, transference, and migration must remain the primary objective of the Government, declared Mr. Baldwin, and for this purpose two millions would be .found this year and three next. An extra grant of £100,000 would be asked for at once in order to facilitate the removal of families, and the possibility of devising schemes for giving occupation prior to transfer would be examined. Up to this point the statement. of the Prime Minister had been listened to with marked approval. But the final proposal to dole out one pound for every pound subscribed to the Lord Mayor's Fund aroused considerable misgivings amongst supporters . of the Government. The objections to this policy seem at the present time so -innumerable and so weighty that a. full explanation is being awaited by Unionist members with some anxiety. It can scarcely be supposed that the State is to ladle out, indefinite sums to private charity for an indefinite period, but if the idea is simply to give an initial stimulus to the Fund, there may be something in it. I write before the debate on Thursday, when we shall presumably learn the motives—doubtless laudable —which have actuated the Government. In the mean- time it is felt in many quarters that they would have been wiser to have stuck to their guns, and continued on an ever-widening scale the functional treatment (including rate and freight relief) which has been adopted hitherto.
I have recently heard suggestions from more than one Unionist back-bencher that the time is rapidly approach- ing—if indeed it has not arrived—for the geographical as well as functional treatment of unemployment. The temporary segregation of two or three of the worst areas from the rest of the community, and their administration by a commission armed with full powers and adequate financial resources,, might prove to be the solution of some of our most difficult problems, and restore the shattered insurance finances without imposing a very much greater burden on the Exchequer. All ordinary forms of relief would of course have to be suspended during the period of " emergency " administration. But a scheme of this kind ought not to be attempted until all else has failed.
The English Local Government Bill proceeds, with what now appears to be somewhat alarming rapidity, upon its appointed course. Every evening a substantial number of clauses are guillotined through Committee without discussion, and pages of amendments, repre- senting hours of useless labour, arc consigned to the waste-paper basket.
Everybody seems highly delighted, and I suppose it is all right. But one or two of our constitutionalists are beginning to look a little grave, and some of the Unionists, who feel that the nationalization of production, dis- tribution and exchange ought to take longer than a fortnight, are getting anxious about precedents. The Chamber seldom contains more than thirty or forty mem- bers. In the Lobby and the smoking-room disjointed and lugubrious conversations can be overheard about the prospects of the Election, trade with Russia, and the Christmas holidays. All three topics induce general,
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