The Prime Minister in His Constituency
- On Monday the Prime Minister, on one of his rare visits to his constituency, said that the Government would refuse to accept any amendment to the Coal Bill which struck at the root of amalgamation. He had been asked why the Government had not put amal- gamation into the Bill at the beginning. The -reason was that they wanted first of all to reduce working hours, but he had always been in favour of amalgamation, which he regarded as essential. Turning to unemploy- ment, he said that since the Government came into power the character of unemployment had " totally changed." There had been the New York collapse and the Hazy case and unemployment had become a universal disease. There had been a " tremendous drop in prices all the world over." It was not the fault of the Govern- ment, that unemployment in this country had increased by half a million. * * *
