§ 46. Mr. BUCHANANasked the Prime Minister if he is aware of the social conditions now prevalent in the City of Glasgow; that thousands of working people are living in dread of being evicted owing to inability to pay rent caused 2546 through continued unemployment; that children are being underfed, thereby impairing their future health; and that a large part of the population of the city are living in a state nearing famine, while the shopkeepers are being ruined through the working people not having purchasing power sufficient to buy the necessaries of life; and what action he intends taking by legislation to alter this state of affairs?
§ Captain ELLIOT (Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health, Scotland)I have been asked to reply to this question. I am of course aware of the grave social conditions prevailing in Glasgow as in other large industrial centres in Scotland. With regard to the second part of the question, I am satisfied that the utmost discretion is being exercised both in granting and in putting into force decrees of eviction for non-payment of rent. With regard to the third part, steps have been taken for the supply of food in necessitous cases of which details are being furnished in the reply which I am giving to a question put down for to-day by the hon. Member for Shettleston. As regards the fourth, fifth and last parts of the question, I am aware that the present depression in trade is pressing severely on all sections of the community, and the Government is making every effort, both by legislation and administration, to promote that revival of trade which alone can provide a lasting remedy for these great and admitted evils.