§ 29. Mr. DAYasked the Minister of Labour how many protests have been made to him from boards of guardians in the area of the Metropolis protesting against the transportation of unemployed from other parts of the country to the Metropolis; and what action he has taken in the matter?
§ The MINISTER of LABOUR (Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland)Four Metropolitan boards of guardians have protested against the transference scheme. The scheme is not likely to cast any appreciable burden upon the Metropolitan Poor Law authorities, and I do not propose to take any action in the matter.
§ Mr. DAYIs one of these boards of guardians in Southwark, and are there not at present 6,000 unemployed on the roll of the Exchange?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDI can get the figures if the hon. Member wishes.
§ Mr. SHINWELLWill it add to the burdens of these boards of guardians at all?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDI have already said that I have no reason to believe that it will add anything appreciable to their burdens.
§ Mr. DAYAre not the figures which I have given the figures given me in the House three months ago?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThey may be so. I am offering the hon. Member the most recent figures that I have.
§ Mr. SHINWELLWho is the best judge of whether a burden will be added, the board of guardians or the central Department?
§ 31. Mr. R. MORRISONasked the Minister of Labour whether his Department has been informed of the reply sent by the Tottenham Urban District Council to the request of the Prime Minister to employ men from depressed areas that Tottenham already has 2,426 registered unemployed men; and will he now issue instructions that no further unemployed men are to be sent into this depressed district?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe unemployment position in Tottenham as compared with that of the depressed mining areas does not warrant my giving the instructions suggested by the hon. Member.
§ Mr. MORRISONIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the amount of money that is being paid by the local board of guardians towards the maintenance of able-bodied unemployed men in the local area causes very intense feeling when these people from outside get preference for situations over the people in the area who have been out of work for months?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe proportion of persons placed in this area is not large compared with the amount of employment there is on offer in the area or as compared with the number of persons out of work in that area. I do not consider that any real injustice is done to an area where there is much less unemployment when a certain number of persons are transferred from districts which are depressed to the extent that some of these districts are.
§ Mr. MORRISONWill the right hon. Gentleman explain why the Tottenham Urban District Council and the Edmonton Board of Guardians, two Conservative local bodies, who understand the district, have an entirely different opinion from what he has?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat question does not arise.
§ 35. Mr. BRIANTasked the Minister of Labour how many men have been transferred from mining areas to other districts; to what districts have they been transferred; and how many have thus been found employment?
§ 56. Mr. LANSBURYasked the Minister of Labour how many men have been transferred to London during the past six months through the agency of Employment Exchanges; in what situations they have been placed; and the period for which employment was guaranteed by the employers?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDNo complete record exists of transfers prior to the latter part of August. Since then at least 4,200 adult males have been transferred from the distressed areas through the Employment Exchanges. The transfer has been principally to the Southern part of the country and the number transferred to the Greater London area was about 1,600. I could not give details of the situations in which the men were placed without laborious inquiry. In all but a few instances, the employment found offers a reasonable prospect o f regularity.
§ Mr. BRIANTCan the right hon. Gentleman inform us if before these men are transferred it is ascertained whether there is adequate housing accommodation for them, especially in regard to London?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDI think that inquiries have been made upon this score, but I will ascertain in order to be certain the actual steps that are taken and communicate with the hon. Member.
§ Mr. LANSBURYIn connection with these persons transferred to London, will the right hon. Gentleman make an inquiry of a sample number of these men as to whether they are still at work in the situations to which they were brought 872 or in other situations, so that we may have some idea as to what this reasonable permanency means.
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDPerhaps the hon. Member will put down a question on the subject.
§ 54. Sir R. THOMASasked the Minister of Labour how many men and how many boys have been transferred to other centres of employment from the South Wales coalfield and the North Wales coalfield, respectively, from the commencement of the transference scheme to the present date?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe number of men and boys who have been transferred from the Wales Division to employment in other parts of the country through Employment Exchange machinery since the inception of the transfer scheme is approximately 4,500 and, in addition, about 700 men are at present in training centres. 1,561 men proceeded to Canada as harvesters. Practically the whole movement has been from the South Wales coalfield, the situation in North Wales being such that no special measures to encourage transfer have been thought necessary.
§ 55. Mr. LANSBURYasked the Minister of Labour in what districts of the Metropolis Employment Exchanges report a shortage of skilled or unskilled labour available for the requirements of employers, and the nature of work for which suitable men are not available?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDI have not called for any reports from the Metropolitan Employment. Exchanges, but have been guided in my action by the state of employment locally. I have prepared a table of the percentages of unemployment at the various Exchanges in the Greater London area at a recent date. As it is somewhat long, will, with the hon. Member's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. LANSBURYCan the Minister of Labour tell us whether there is any Employment Exchange in the Metropolitan area which has notified its inability to fill vacancies?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDI have not asked them, and the answer would not be conclusive even if I could get it. Therefore, I did not put it.
§ Mr. LANSBURYI am not asking the right hon. Gentleman to ask the Employment Exchanges for the information, but that the House might know the truth or otherwise of the statement as to the relative distress in certain areas in London as compared with certain areas in the coalfields.
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDI have not asked the question because it is not necessary. There is probably no place where there is a complete and absolute shortage of labour at any moment, but to say that 100 per cent. of the people must be employed in any one area before anybody is brought in from a distressed area is a doctrine to which I cannot subscribe.
§ Mr. LANSBURYThe right hon. Gentleman has no business to assume that anyone has made that statement. I am asking him in what district there is a shortage of men to fill vacancies? In what district such as he has described is there less unemployment? The point I am putting to him is the case of the distressed areas in the Metropolitan district.
Captain ARTHUR EVANSIs it not the fact that only 5 per cent. of the employed population in London are out of employment, whereas in South Wales—[Interruption].
§ Mr. LANSBURYIs the Minister of Labour aware that he cannot take the Metropolitan area as a single unit as it is made up of 28 districts and that these districts vary as much as the districts in South Wales and other parts of the country?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDTherefore, the table that I have got out on purpose will give the hon. Member and everyone else precisely the information he desires.
§ Following is the table:
§ Number of unemployed persons on the registers of certain Employment Exchanges in the Greater London Area at 15th October, 1928, expressed as a percentage of the insured population.
| Bermondsey | … | 8.6 |
| Borough | … | 10.2 |
| Brixton | … | 2.3 |
| Camberwell | … | 4.5 |
| Camden Town and King's Cross | … | 5.3 |
| City | … | 6.8 |
| Clapham Junction and Tooting | … | 2.9 |
| Deptford and Greenwich | 6.1 |
| Edgware Road and Great Marlborough Street | 5.6 |
| Hackney | 4.4 |
| Holloway | 2.8 |
| Lewisham | 2.9 |
| Poplar | 11.2 |
| Shepherd's Bush | 3.8 |
| Shoreditch | 5.4 |
| Stepney | 7.2 |
| Walham Green | 4.4 |
| Westminster and Tavistock Street | 3.5 |
| Woolwich | 7.5 |
| Acton | 6.2 |
| Enfield | 10.6 |
| Hendon | 3.5 |
| Hounslow | 4.5 |
| Southall | 5.5 |
| Tottenham | 6.3 |
| Willesden | 3.2 |
| Wood Green | 3.1 |
| Croydon | 3.6 |
| Kingston-on-Thames | 4.1 |
| Richmond | 3.9 |
| Wimbledon | 3.7 |
| East Ham | 6.8 |
| Ilford | 10.4 |
| Leyton and Walthamstow | 5.6 |