PRIME MINISTER'S REVIEW. (Hansard, 18 August 1919)

§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Lloyd George)

I beg to move, That this House do meet To-morrow at Twelve o'clock and at its rising do adjourn until Wednesday, 22nd October, and that To-morrow Mr. Speaker, as soon as he has reported the Royal Assent to Acts which have been agreed upon by both Houses, do adjourn the House without Question put. In moving the Motion which stands in my name, I propose, with the leave of the House, to review the trade and industrial position of this country. The country, of which I have to take a survey, is so very wide and so sweeping that it will be impossible for me in the picture to do more than note the broader Aspects of the landscape. I have received many suggestions as to what I should say. I do not know of any Minister who has ever been more kindly treated in that respect. I shall do my best not to disappoint my kind assistants, but I am afraid it will be quite impossible for me to make any declarations with regard to some of the questions on which I am invited to speak to-day.

I propose to deal only with the trade and industrial position. That will include a review of the coal-mining industry in this country, and certain proposals which have been made in respect of it. I think that is quite as much as any speaker can possibly survey in the course of a single speech, and it may turn out to be even more than that. There are certain advantages in making the review now rather than at an earlier period of the year. Earlier in the year there was a good deal of obscurity, and there were a great many uncertainties in the situation—uncertainties that have since been cleared up. During the time I was at the Peace Conference, I had the privilege of meeting a good many experts from many lands, and debating and discussing with them the whole of the industrial position throughout the world. Now that I recall some of the things that they predicted, I can sec that not even the astutest among them foresaw exactly the course that events have taken. Many things they feared 1980 have never occurred; many apprehensions have been dispelled by events. On the other hand, there are many circumstances, to which they did not attach importance, which events have shown to be of a magnitude of which all Governments must take note. Both from the bright and the gloomy side, I cannot say that any expert could, or at any rate did, accurately forecast the course of events six months ago. That is one advantage.