MR. KEIR-HARDIEI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether the Government will at once appoint a small Select Committee of the House to consider the question of "the unemployed," with instructions to report to the House with the least possible delay what measures are necessary to provide work for those who desire it and are unable to find it?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONESir, I will answer the question of the hon. Member as particularly as I am able on account of its great importance. The hon. Member, I think, lays down as the conditions of his question that a Committee is to be immediately appointed, that the Committee is to be small, that it is to report without any avoidable delay, that it will embrace the question of the unemployed throughout the whole country. It is assumed in the question not merely that the Committee might inquire whether there were any measures that could be taken, but that there are measures which will provide work for all who are desirous to have it and unable to find it. It is also assumed that these measures 1916 ought to be adopted and executed by the Central Authority—that is to say, by Parliament, or under the immediate authority of Parliament. Now, Sir, that is not the method established in this country at present. The established policy is that the Local Authorities in a question of this kind, when extraordinary distress is supposed to prevail, or may be found to prevail, in particular districts, are by far the best and safest to know the nature and character of that distress and what are the steps most fit to be taken, so far as they can be taken, in alleviation of it. That is very decidedly the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, and they are not prepared to concur in transferring from the Local Authorities to the House of Commons a duty for which the Local Authorities are very well qualified, and for which, with all possible respect, they do not think that this Legislative Assembly are nearly so well qualified. Sir, the subject of the question of the hon. Member has by no moans been overlooked by Her Majesty's Government, for as far back as the month of September last my right hon. Friend the President of the Local Government Board issued to the Local Sanitary Authorities throughout the country a Circular, which has not been laid on the Table of the House, though, as there is nothing confidential about the Circular, we are perfectly ready to present it. I may just state the main points of that Circular. The date was the 13th of September of the present year. The purpose is to call the attention of the Local Authority to the expediency and advantage, where practicable, of giving employment to that class of persons differing from the class that would find their natural mode of relief in the machinery of the Poor Law. The Circular then goes on to specify the description of work for which such employed might be given, and likewise the important conditions with which regard ought to be had in determining to give employment of that kind. The Circular also states that anything that is done in the direction indicated should be done with despatch, and, further, that if in any case the works to be undertaken are of such a character that the cost of them could not be defrayed as part of the annual expenditure of the locality, and if 1917 an application for a loan were thought expedient, the Local Government Board would expedite, as far as lay in its power, the operations connected with the sanction of the loan and the granting of the permission necessary to enable the borrowing to take place. This is the substance of the Circular, and it will be placed in the hands of hon. Members at once. But there is another point on which it may be of interest to the hon. Member to be informed, and that is that our attention has been directed to the amount of connection which subsists between the subject of this question and the scope of the Inquiry of the Labour Commission which was appointed some time ago during the existence of the late Government. The Labour Commission has regarded the question of the unemployed as a subject falling within its cognizance under the instructions which it has received, and it has given much attention to that subject. The subject will supply matter for a large and important part of its Report, and the Labour Commission is now engaged in considering what that Report shall be.
§ MR. J. BURNS (Battersea)The Prime Minister having refused a special Committee, may I ask him whether, in order to avoid delay, the Government will at once refer the question of the unemployed and what practical remedies can be provided by Local Authorities to the Royal Commission on Labour at present sitting, which has at its disposal the best means of investigation and which can command information which will enable rapid consideration and prompt report; and, in the event of such reference, will the Government invite the Royal Commission on Labour to report as soon as it possibly can?
§ MR. W. E. GLADSTONEI think, with regard to the substance of the question of my hon. Friend, an answer has been already given. The Government is very desirous that whatever Report is to be made should be made without delay. I have already stated that the Commission is engaged in considering its Report. It is very desirous that the means it possesses for the investigation of this subject should be made available and by the Commission itself. I stated that the Commission has taken the same view as my hon. Friend, and, believing that the question of the unemployed falls 1918 within its cognizance, has given it great attention and is engaged in preparing a Report upon it.
MR. KEIR-HARDIEMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, as this House has laid down the principle on which the poor of the country have to be relieved, leaving the administration only to Local Authorities, it is the opinion of the Government that it is out of the power of this House to decide a similar principle of relief for the able-bodied unemployed, leaving only the administration to Local Authorities, as in the case of the present Poor Law?
§ * MR. W. E. GLADSTONEMy right hon. Friend has in his Circular stated all, as far as I can see, that can at present be said with regard to what I understand to be the principle of relief—namely, the definition of the class of persons whom the Local Authorities ought to have in view, and the conditions upon which the works affording them employment ought to be set in operation, and the nature and character of such works.
MR. KEIR-HARDIEis the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Corporation of Jarrow, over a year ago, made application for a loan for works for this purpose, and the Local Government Board refused to sanction the loan except upon terms which the Corporation found to be inconvenient?
§ * MR. SPEAKEROrder, order! That is clearly a question for notice.