Industry's Devastated Areas There was no very positive outcome of
the House of Commons debate on the derelict areas, but it is something that the debate should have taken place at all. The spread of unemployment over the whole field of industry during the slump has diverted attention from the fact that in certain regions—especially Durham and parts of South Wales and Scotland— extreme distress persisted throughout the whole period of general prosperity, and is likely to remain if and when the general revival takes place. At the best, unless a great effort directed to this specific purpose is made, the country is likely to be left with .a permanent figure of more than a million unem- ployed. There are whole tow n; and villages, whose inhabitants subsisted wholly on mining, in the vicinity of old mines most of which will never be re-opened. There are towns like Jarrow, whose 32,000 people depend on ship-building, with three-quarters of their Workers unem- ployed. In such places the position appears to 'be one of enduring hopelessness. Theirs is a special problem which ought to be faced without delay, and organization set up to promote the training of the young, the migration of those who can .be transferred to work elsewhere, and the establishment of local industries for those who cannot.
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