SPECIAL AREA PALLIATIVES T HE delay in die production of the
Government's proposals regarding the Special Areas has aroused expectations which the White Paper issued on Monday only in a very limited degree satisfies. It is significant, and not entirely reassuring, that considerably more of it is devoted to a statement of what has been done in the past than to a programme of rescue and resuscitation for the future. A good deal, undeniably, has been done. So far k5,000,o6o has been voted by Parliament for the needs of the Special Areas, and commitments involving kr r,000,000 have been entered into. In addition Government orders, particularly armament orders, have, so far as possible, been given to firms in the Special Areas, involving an outlay in those areas from April 1st, 1935, to November, 1936, of L24,000,000. As a result of these special measures, and partly also of trade recovery generally, the number of unemployed in the Special Areas of England and Wales and Scotland fell between November, 1934, and January, 1937—just over two years—by 26 per cent. to a total of -335,227: A further relief that has been decided on but has not yet taken effect is a change in the block grant system calculated to transfer considerable burdens from the local rates to the Exchequer.
These are far from negligible achievements. The Government has not done what it might have done, but it cannot be accused of doing nothing. What could be charged against it, and must be still, is that it has never gripped the Special Areas problem as a major issue, and attempted to tackle it at its roots. A policy of here a little and there a little has prevailed throughout ; no one, of course, has been actually starving ; under our system of social services that does not happen ; and the unemployed in the Special Areas as elsewhere have been incredibly patient. Their patience will be laid under strain still, for the Govern- ment's new proposals will make no dramatic change in their situation. Again the proposals are sound so far as they go. The life of the present Act is to be extended from May, 1937, to March, 1939 ; various steps, notably the offer of rate and taxation relief for five years, are to be taken to tempt new industries to the Special• Areas, and to- the areas at present scheduled new " certified " areas are to be added (mainly for the benefit of Lancashire) in which modified assistance to new industries is to be given. A sum not exceeding £2,000,000, equal to what Lord Nuffield has given for substantially the same purpose, is to be made available for loans to enable new undertakings to be established in both Special and certified areas. To none of that need exception be taken—but all the proposals put together are manifestly inadequate to meet a need measured by the fact that in four Special Areas the total of unemployed is still over 335,000.
There is little evidence that the Government has any policy going beyond the first-aid stage, or is dis-1 tinguishing between emergency and long-term measures. It takes credit for the effect of its munitions-contracts on unemployment, but- with some -exceptions--for it is likely enough that some of the new factories in South Wales and Scotland will be maintained permanently, in place of others situated in more vulnerable regions —armament work will diminish rapidly in a few years unless the new international competition ends in war, and in that case there will be an aftermath of Special Areas with which neither this nor any other Government will be capable of coping. Armament contracts serve their purpose in easing- the immediate problem and giving a breathing-space for the framing of a long-term policy. But they are no kind of substitute for that policy. The real measure of the inadequacy of the new proposals is the programme—still for the most part a paper programme—drawn up by Sir Malcolm Stewart when he resigned his position as Commissioner for the Special Areas last November. No special sanctity attaches to the late Commissioner's recom- mendations as such, but they come from- a man who has been at far closer grips with the Special Areas problem than any member of the Cabinet. • Some of his - proposals—notably the provision of inducements to attract new industries to the areas, and the reduction of the burden of public assistance on local authorities—do find a place in the Government's programme, and the fact that the Fuel Research Board has been inspecting certain of the oil-from-coal processes now in commercial operation may -be the prelude to a response to Sir Malcolm's appeal for financial help for the erection of oil-from-coal plants in South Wales. But where in the White Paper is there mention of such public works as the installation of a calcium carbide factory in South Wales, or a new bridge over the Severn, or the construction of a South Wales national park, or the reconstruction of Maryport Harbour and the improvement of traffic communications in Cumberland generally, or the limitation of the mad industrial •ex- pansion in the London area, or the- development of land settlement and cottage homesteads and instruc- tional centres and oversea settlement schemes ? Not every one of these expedients is necessarily sound, but the disparity between Sir Malcolm Stewart's twenty- point programme and the Government's White Paper plans is depressing; Nor do the administrative arrangements in contem- plation inspire confidence. In the very interesting report prepared for Sir Malcolm Stewart by the firm of Sir Alexander Gibb and Parmers on the South West Durham Special Area the relatively modest proposals put forward are accompanied by a warning that to carry them out some permanent and independent executive would be necessary, other than the DevelOpment Council and Area Commissioner. Sir Malcolm Stewart himself made no secret of the fact that he was hampered at every turn by having to deal with half a dozen Govern- ment departments without an authority equal to theirs. Only a Cabinet Minister could possess such authority. The Government could dispel a great many misgivings by announcing that = during the ' currency of the Special Areas Act a Minister other - than the Minister of Labour, whose hands are quite full enough without that, would have supreme charge of the adminis- tration of the measure, and -be- in a position to deal with Government departments on equal terms where the Special Areas are concerned: We are not yet reduced to regarding the Special Areas, as at present defined, as a permanent social and industrial liability, though it would be folly not to recognise that certain regions in South Wales and - South-West Durham- can never regain their prosperity and must be to a large extent evacuated. But the Government shows no sign of facing any problem so radical as that. It has done a good deal in the last two years to make unemploy- ment more tolerable and a certain amount to make employment in certain areas more abundant. Its new proposals will do something more still, though nothing, apparently, in the matter of nutrition and health—but unless the projected Bill is greatly strengthened in committee, it will fall far short of meeting a real and urgent need.
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