§ EARL WINTERTONI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade for what reason statistics relating to trade union unemployment in Germany are given in some issues of the Board of Trade Labour Gazette and not in others, in view of the fact that figures are published monthly relating to unemployment by the German Statistical Bureau.
§ MR. KEARLEYThe figures relating to trade union unemployment given in the "Labour Gazette." are those published quarterly by the German Labour Department, and the monthly percentages quoted at quarterly intervals are not available prior to the issue of these returns. So far as I am aware the German Labour Department is the only German Statistical Bureau which publishes such figures.
§ EARL WINTERTONIs it the fact that the figures for some months are not published although they are available? Could they not be published quarterly?
§ MR. KEARLEYThey are published quarterly. We print them as soon as we are able after their publication in Germany.
§ MR. JOHN WARD (Stoke-on-Trent)asked if it was not the fact that the German unemployment statistics were collected by the police and absolutely repudiated by German trade union officials?
§ MR. KEARLEYAs far as we know the figures published by the German Imperial Bureau are trades union figures. There are other figures, however, published by an independent association.
§ EARL WINTERTONAre not the German figures quite as reliable as those in England?
[No Answer was returned.]