Hope for Jarrow _ The Special Areas, which tend to
pass out of mind amid the constant talk of a boom and the turmoil of foreign affairs, are still depressed. The announcement that Jarrow is to have a new steel works, with a capital of £1,000,000, is some indication that they are not quite forgotten, and that industry can be persuaded to return to them. The present scheme has been made possible by a Government loan from the Special Areas fund, and by the participation of the Bankers' Industrial .Development Company, the Nuffield Trustees, and the Consett Iron C.onipany. Thus, by a typically British arrange- ment, Government assistance, private enterprise, and private generosity have combined to provide employment for a few hundred at least of the people - of Jarrow, 30 per cent. of 'whom are unemployed. It is not yet known whether the site of the new works will be Palmer's derelict yard, once the backbone of the town's prosperity, but it is perhaps not without significance that the chairman of the new company is connected with Armstrong Whitworth's. The Steel Enquiry leport, whose publication is promised by Mr. Stanley very soon, should provide further much-needed sources of hope for the Special Areas.
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