71. Mr. W. A. JENKINSasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that through the closing down of collieries in the neighbourhood of Brynmawr (South Wales) hundreds of men have been out of employment from one and a-half to two years, with the result that very acute distress prevails; and, in such cases, when large bodies of men -are thrown out of work through circumstances over which they have no control, will he consider the desirability and necessity of making the burden of relief a national charge and not a charge on the local authorities?
§ Mr. BALDWINEven if the serious administrative difficulties in the way of the hon. Member's proposal could be surmounted, I do not see how the State could possibly undertake this local charge in the existing state of the national finances.