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THE UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION.
Report of the Industrial Transference
Board.
(Previous
Reference: Cabinet 35 (28), Con- clusion 3.)
OVERSEA SETTLEMENT.
(Previous
Reference: Cabinet 9 (28), Con- clusion 7.)
5. The Cabinet had before them the following
Memoranda on the subject of the Unemployment
Situation:-
A Memorandum by the Minister of Labour (Paper C.P.-206 (28)) covering the Report of the Industrial Transference Board and proposing to authorise publication at the end of the week:
A Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (Paper C.P.-210 (28)) advocating. as a remedy for the present diffi- cult unemployment situation, giving our industries some measure of shelter in the home market and spreading the burden of our taxation so as to cover all the
oods that, are sold in that market. Combined with Imperial Preferenue: A Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (Paper 0.P.-198 (28)) covering a Memo- randum by the Oversea Settlement Committee showing what can be done to relieve the situation by means of overses settlement, and at what cost. In this Memorandum it was pointed out that it should be possible to settle overseas each year 7,000 single miners, 2,500 miners with families (say 10,000 souls), 2,500 boys and 2,000 single women, or 21,500 souls in all at a total net cost cr £601,000 or just under £28 per head, in addition to recoverable expenditure of £300,000 a year as from 1930 and capital expenditure of £3,000,000 for land development purposes spread over 30 years. These sums were compared in the Memorandum with £85,000,000 per year stated to have been spent on relief of unemployment since the Armistice:
A Memorandum by the Minister of Labour (Paper C.P.-211 (28)) stating that a Question had been put down in the House of Commons challenging the policy which had been adopted by the Minister of Labour, as a special measure in view of the unemployment in the coalfields, of endeavouring to place some of the miners in employment (in small numbers) in the more prosperous areas, even though suitable local applicants might have been found. This policy being in accordance with the
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