The Cabinet committee on unemployment agreed on Friday, September 16th,
to propose to Parliament that the State should assist local authorities in providing work for the unemployed. The State should pay half the interest on local loans raised for that purpose, for half the term of the loans. The mayors of those London boroughs which are controlled by the Labour Party seized the opportunity for making a display of their zeal, and incidentally for seeing the Highlands, by announcing that they must have an interview with the Prime Minister. Mr. Lloyd George, who was ill, warned them by telegraph that he could not see them, but the Labour mayors were not to be put off. They went to Inverness on Sunday and spent the time pleasantly while awaiting the Prime Minister's recovery. It was announced that he might receive them for a few minutes on Thursday. Like the unseasonable caller in the parable, these Labour politicians prevailed because of their importunity—at any rate to the extent of seeing the Prime Minister. But as we write on Thursday, it seems unlikely that they will, like the man in the -parable, get all they ask for.
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