§ 17. Mr. GILBERTasked the Secretary for Mines whether there has recently been any decrease in the unemployment of miners in Great Britain; and can he give any comparative figures of the present year and a year ago?
§ Lieut.-Colonel LANE-FOXYes, Sir. According to the figures of the Ministry of Labour, which are based on unemployment books lodged at the Employment Exchanges, there were 55,717 workpeople 1014 in the coal mining industry totally unemployed at the 22nd January, 1923, as compared with 118,143 at the 31st January, 1922. The number in employment in the mining industry is, however, now actually greater by about 40,000 than the maximum number employed before the War.