When the House of Commons reassembled on Tuesday, Sir Robert
Home defended the administration of the unemploy- ment donation, which would be made the, subject of inquiry by a Committee. It had been abused, he said, but not so much as the public supposed. Employers who were short of labour had not offered sufficient wages or had not applied to the Labour. Exchanges. As for domestic service, seventeen thousand girls had lost their weekly dolee • for refusing -situations, but, sixty- six thousand women had been placed in domestic service-since November. Of the million persons receiving donations, three. hundred and fifty thousand were ex-soldiers or ex-sailors, and one hundred thousand were cotton operatives whom the blockade had thrown out of woe-. On theotherhand, three millionsout of the four millions of Service men and munition workers demobilized had found eMployment. As the-world's markets were still shut Sir Robert Home urged that the position was not wholly die- couragieg, Mr. Clyne in a friendly speech urged that the Govern- ment ought to have provided work instead of doles, but he could. not specify any means of doing so. The scarcity of materials and the official restrictions on industry and investment have, of course, hindered employers from making .a fresh start. The speedy conclusion of peace is,, however, the primary need.
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