HC Deb 10 April 1919 vol 114 c2226
85. Mr. FREDERICK GREEN

asked the Minister for Labour whether his attention has been called to the joint decision of the cotton manufacturers and the operative spinners to cause a stoppage in the spinning industry for the purpose of keeping up the prices, and to cause this stoppage in such a way as to secure the operatives while unemployed getting unemployed benefit at the public expense instead of coming upon the dispute funds of their trade unions; whether he has had representations from the weaving sheds of Lancashire and also from the lace and hosiery trades of Leicester, Nottingham, and other places protesting against this attempt of one branch of an industry to deprive other branches of the industry of their raw material except at swollen prices, and what steps he proposes to take?

Mr. WARDLE

I am aware that work is to be suspended for a time in a certain section of the Lancashire cotton-spinning industry, and, after full consideration, it has been decided that out-of-work donation will be paid to the operatives during the period of suspension (excluding the ordinary three day's waiting period and a further three days representing the Easter holidays). The answer to the second part of the question is in the negative, and, in any case, concerns the Board of Trade rather than the Ministry of Labour. I must not, however, be understood as assenting to the hon. Member's suggestion as to the causes underlying the suspension.