We have read with interest the Report from the Select
Committee on Training and Employment of Disabled Er-Service Men. (H.M. Stationery Office. 12s. 6d. net.)—The minutes of evidence which occupy the greater part of the volume contain a great deal of valuable information on this urgent but complex problem, as do the appendices dealing with the methods adopted
for solving it in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and other foreign countries, several of which were visited by sub-committees for the purpose of investigation. The total number of men in receipt of disability pensions in this country is about 900,000, of whom it was estimated that 100,000 were unemployed in the earlier part of this year. This is a rather higher percentage than that of the unemployed amongst ordinary workers, which at the same time was about 10 per cent. We regret to see that the committee consider that "the sentiment in favour of preferential treatment and generally sympathy towards the disabled ex-Service man is- on the decline." They make a number of recommendations for recasting the present voluntary system, to which they hope to see legislative effect given during the autumn session ; they add that if the problem is not thus solved by May, 1923, "recourse should then be had to a form of compulsion."
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