§ MR. PIKE PEASE (Darlington)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that at a meeting of the Berlin Stadtveror-denetenversammlung on Friday last the number of unemployed in Berlin was officially stated to be 30,000; and whether he can state how this compares with the present number of unemployed in London.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I understand that the statement mentioned appeared in a German newspaper, but I do not know whether it was official. There is no Return of the total number of unemployed persons in London at the present time, but I am informed that the number of persons registered by the London Distress Committees between 14th October last and 31st January was 25,561. Some of these have, however, since found work. There were 5,406 persons on the register of employment exchanges in London at the end of December, and the Returns made to the Board of Trade by various trades unions show that the number of members of those unions who were out of employment at that date was 5,581. I am not in a position to state how far persons are included in more than one of these numbers. I should add that a trustworthy comparison between London and other capitals in respect of this matter cannot well be made unless it could be shown that the statistics were compiled on the same basis.