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THE CHINA IL, DECEMBER 1937
THE WORLD GOES BY
careful note must
unemployed
how often
THE British Government of that pursued whole on targe potato be Pall Mall to Nothing Hill Society one most important factor to be be
Home paper, has decided that roasted whole on the village green. leaders-grew haggard, debutantes membere there is no necessity to adjust the scale of unemployment relief to the rise in the cost of living-
3
The rise of 6 per cent in the cost of living "cannot be said to warrant a general revision of the
Trouser Seats
took to drink. In the clubs, blood taken pressure soared on every hand, and laugh. innumerable fits were thrown.
No matter how cleverly they Armies of investigators went on may hide their comfort under the It is a clear journeys through industrial areas assumed garb of misery, there is no looking for examples of the deban-mistaking a laugh.
time an unemployed man was seen himself. coming out of a pub or smoking half
Statutory generosity has been fixed, it appears, at 24s a week for scales, So the Unemployment man and wife, with is for a childchery of the workless, and every indication that a man is enjoying Assistance Board "will avail itself But how can they be certain that of the existing powers for increas-this is scientifically correct? ing benefits in cases of proven hardship," says Mr. Ernest Brown, the Minister of Labour.
"The mechanism of the Board," says the London "Daily Telegraph," the "is working smoothly," and general need will be generously met
=>
a Woodbine, the press was full of harrowing accounts of the way
can be increased, unemployed were wallowing sed number of inspectors, or,
Before relief lycu observe, hardship has to be fury at taxpayers' expense.
BY "ULYSSES"
The news that unemployment re- lief is going to be as generous as proved. But how can they prove before will, Lexpect, cause great hardship without a scientific unit rejoicings throughout the country. of measurement?. Bonfires will be lit, and in some places Rural District Councils will
CORRESPONDENCE
Sir With
the
approach of Christmas and the coming of the winter months the appeals in the sweet name of Charity in the Co- lony are many and varied, but I venture to say that there is none more urgent than the appeal for food-just food:
"It is not enough to have a
I shall never forget the terrible night when I sat by the bedside of a wealthy landowner who had fal- len in a fit on the floor of the Savoy grill on hearing that an unemployed card-room operative in Lancashire had had a chop for dinner on Sun- day.
The Question
There should, therefore, be an in-
better still, armies of plain clothes detectives, to move about in indus trial areas noting signs of merri- ment
By such means they will be able to check the emotional reactions of the unemployed to their conditions, and by reduc ing the rate of relief at the rate, say, of 2d off for every laugh, they can establish the statutory minimum of enjoy- ment."
Not until laughing has been abo-
standard of measurement for Of Laughter malnutrition. Malnutrition is
I do not want to see or hear of lished from industrial areas, I feel, only one department of hardship. By fixing the statutory number the old country (bless it!) suffer-can one rest assured that the condi- of calories and proteins you only ing like that again. The scale of re-tions of the unemployed are consis But lief should be fixed on a scientific tent with the economic stability and discipline the stomach. many people can be quite happy basis in future. In fixing the sta- the resources of the Empire (Hats on a low die Man cannot be tutory degree of misery, there is off, boys). miserable by lack of bread alone. Clearly other discomforts must be ensured.
Hardship, within the meaning of the Act, should concern such things as the coldness of rooms, the We all know of the abnormal con-paucity of furniture and bed- clothes, the porosity of boots, and ditions here. occasioned by the war,
the thinness of trouser seats. The and it is true to say that Hunger will be writ large on the faces of statutory unit of measurement of thousands of the poorest Chinese hardship, therefore, must take all in Hong Kong in the next few these elements into consideration months.
on the to be
With the British Empire in its It is because of this that with usual state of balanging half the population of the edge of ruin, things Colony on this side of the harbour, jcut very close.
I have formed the Kowloon Winter 1 Food Committee, and at a meeting
Two haricot
beans more than a day or two ago it was decided necessary for dinner, a roof two that an appeal should be launched degrees more watertight than it for the Kowloon Winter Food Re-need be, a trouser patch of more and lief Fund The Kowloon Chinese than minimum thickness YMCA has agreed to allow its the whole delicate fabric of our grounds to be used as the distribut-imperial economic stability will, it ing centre and a system of ticket would appeall to the ground. distribution has been devised so that only the poorest and most de- stitute Chinese will benefit from the scheme. Even then it will only apply to old people and women and children. It is proposed to issue only uncooked rice.
ཆོས་་ས
in view of the fact that the
And what shall it profit a man if he gain two haricot beans and lose his whole Empire?
I am sure you, will endorse what I say about the need for xactitude. lt has been generally felt that on of the most terrible calamities that
Street Sleepers Society has not yet can befall a nation is that the un-
been able to find a Shelter in Kow-employed shall enjoy themselves. loon this year, the need for help is unnecessarily.
all the more urgent on this side of
the harbour, and this Food Commit-
tee earnestly appeals to the public When Debs
to send in donations for this pur-Took To Drink pose. Such donations may be sent
to the Vicar, St. Andrew's Vicarage, Kowloon
I well remember the anxiety tha was caused in England when
was first I want to make this appeal with unemployment relief out being sentimental though it started. The awful thought that, would be easy not to do so. A little at any moment, somewhere in the use, though, of the imagmation country, some unemployed man should make this one of the best might be enjoying himself, caused untold misery in respectable circles. supported Charities in the Colony, throughout this winter.
Yours etc.
Gloom settled on the West End of London. When the news spread that in all parts of the country the R. HIGGS
unemployed were still sleeping in Winter beds and eating off tables, a fierce rom
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