CAPTAIN FABERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether in view of the frequent discharges of Government labourers, and the destitution caused thereby, he will cause printed notices to be periodically publicly affixed in the Arsenal, warning men that the employment is probably only of a temporary nature.
§ MR. HALDANEIf the hon. and gallant Member refers to the labourers employed by the Army Ordnance Department at Woolwich, I would inform him that there are comparatively few men rated as temporary, and they know that they are temporarily employed. As regards the employees of the Royal Arsenal, the suggestion embodied in this Question is, I am afraid, not one which can be adopted, because, as a general rule, the employment in the Arsenal is not of a temporary nature. Hitherto it has been the custom, where men are required for a particular piece of work which is known to he temporary, that they have been individually advised that the employment offered is temporary.
§ SIR W. EVANS GORDON (Tower Hamlets, Stepney)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether, in view of the distress prevailing in Woolwich owing to the discharge of men from the 321 Royal Arsenal, any, and if so, what steps are in contemplation for providing work for the men thrown out of employment.
§ MR. HALDANEAs far as employment in the Royal Arsenal is concerned, I am afraid that I can add nothing to the reply given to the hon. and gallant Member last Wednesday.† As regards the question of other employment at Woolwich, I can only state that it is obvious that the matter is not one with which the machinery put by Parliament at the disposal of the War Office can enable it to deal.
§ SIR W. EVANS GORDONIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that a considerable number of these men have expressed a desire to emigrate to Canada, and would it be possible for the War Office to give them any financial assistance?
§ MR. HALDANEI am afraid Parliament has made no provision in the Estimates which would enable us to do that, but I will inquire.
§ *MR. CHIOZZA MONEY (Paddington, N.)May I ask my right hon. friend whether he has given consideration to the face that the responsibilities occasioned by the discharges and imposed upon the local authority are really Imperial responsibilities, since the Government of the country established the Arsenal?
§ MR. HALDANEThat Question means, if my hon. friend is right, that the War Office is bound to make provision for the unemployed where it has works. I cannot assent to that view.
§ *MR. ALDEN (Middlesex, Tottenham)Would it not be possible for the War Office to make a grant to these trade unions which pay "out of work" pay so as to encourage trade union insurance against unemployment.
§ MR. HALDANEIf I were something else than the Minister in charge of the War Office and responsible for bringing the Estimates down to the standard which the House of Commons insists on, I might give specious Answers to these Questions,
† See (4) Debates,clxiii, 1090.322 and possibly do something; but I do not think the House of Commons would let me, even if I wore willing.
§ SIR W. EVANS GORDONI beg also to ask the Secretary of State for War whether the men employed in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, to meet the emergency caused by the African War, were not temporary hands; whether these men have not all long since been discharged; and whether the total number of men now employed in the Arsenal is not less than before the declaration of war in 1899?
§ MR. HALDANEThe men taken on during the war were not all temporary hands, and these men have not all been discharged. The total number now employed in the Ordnance Factories is somewhat less than before the war. Every care has been taken to avoid making discharges not demanded by public interests.
§ MR. ARTHUR HENDERSON (Durham, Barnard Castle)Has the number of officials been reduced correspondingly?
§ MR. HALDANEI can assure my hon. friend that we are looking as closely into their case as into that of the workmen, and we are reducing them wherever we can.