In the House of Commons on Monday the debate on
unemployment was remarkable for the -unexpected absence of Mr. 'Lloyd George. Mr. D R. Grenfell and Mr. J. Baker stated what Labour could do in terms as valiant as those of Mr. Lloyd" George. They said that unemployment had been created by Reparations and deflation. Sir Oswald Mosley declared that the State should itself buy from the Dominions and thus give them the secure markets they required. Sir Arthur Steel- Maitland, the Minister of Labour, who spoke with unusual fire, pulled many of the proposed remedies .for unemploy- ment to pieces bit by bit. The electrical industry was working full time already and could not move any faster. What would be the use of introducing unskilled labour ? Vast expenditure on roads and bridges would be " hope- lessly uneconomic " and the men would be thrown back into unemployment when the task was finished. Labour had pledged itself to reforms that would cost £290,000,000, to which the Labour surtax would contribute about £40,000,000. " That is what they call increasing the purchasing power of the people ! " * * * *
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