EMPLOYMENT RETURS. (Hansard, 10 December 1929)

§ Brigadier General Sir HENRY CROFT

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require employers in industries benefiting from safeguarding duties to make annual returns as to the number of persons employed. I move this Motion, not for any party purposes, but simply in order to ascertain facts with a view to arriving at a true judgment as to the employment in the varied industries of the country which we may term "safeguarded," before any change of policy takes place. The House probably realises that up to now there is no power given to the Government to insist upon returns of employment in industries which have the benefit of the security of State action in their struggle against foreign competitors. I submit that if the State intervenes in order to assist an industry or to save it from destruction, the State is entitled to have full details, and this House is entitled to have knowledge, with regard to the employment in those industries.

Clause 1 of the Bill, therefore, requires all employers in industries in Great Britain and Northern Ireland which have the benefit of a Customs Duty or a licence applied to their foreign competitors, or subsidies or bounties applied to their own products, annually to send a [...]urn of the number of persons employed 262 in the factories which they control to the Board of Trade. Clause 2 requires the above-mentioned employers to render a return of the names of industries which provide them with parts, accessories or materials for the manufacture of safeguarded goods. The reason why this matter is very urgent is that each successive President of the Board of Trade in recent years has had to come to the House and confess that he has not got complete figures and has no power to get them, with the result that hon. Members of this House who are considering this grave problem of unemployment have no full knowledge as to whether this policy has been successful or otherwise.

I will give two or three instances of the incomplete information that we have. In the case of musical instruments we have been told quite frankly by the President of the Board of Trade that in three years the number of persons employed in the manufacture of musical instruments went up from 19,700 to 24,340. That is an increase of 4,640, or 23 per cent. which is satisfactory. That is the official figure. But I happen to know that in one single gramophone industry employment has gone up by four times. As far as I can see, the figures are not in any way complete. For instance, we have no knowledge of the very large number of persons who are employed in making cabinets or 263 as french polishers outside the industry concerned. Again there are no separate figures for pianos. Yet we know, and the right hon. Member for Derby (Mr. J. H. Thomas) knows that the importation of German pianos has decreased from a total of 22,000 before the War to 1,500 last year. The inference, therefore, is that there is a very considerably increased production taking place in this country of pianos which were previously provided from Germany.

Take the case of artificial silk. We had the latest figures to-day. I did not take them down, but we find that in four years, according to the official figures, the production has increased by 50 per cent. That is satisfactory to the right hon. Gentleman opposite, but it is not enough, because it does not give him complete information. Mr. Samuel Courtauld, in a speech at the annual meeting of Messrs. Courtauld, estimated that the total number of persons employed in all the various processes, including mixtures of cotton and some other fibre, at the beginning of 1929 was certainly over 200,000 and probably as high as 300,000. Coming from a very conservative business man I think that that statement is encouraging, even to those hon. Gentlemen who belong to the Liberal party. But these facts are not yet ascertained.

Again, turn to motor tyres. No one knows the figures, and the President of the Board of Trade cannot give them. The Government are going to wipe out these duties, but they have not ascertained the facts. It is estimated that the numerous foreign firms that have come to this country in order to make tyres in Great Britain already employ thousands of persons. Do I exaggerate when I suggest that the persons employed in the manufacture of motor tyres throughout the country, or rather the increased number in the last three years, may be in the neighbourhood of 15,000 persons? But we have not the facts which the House ought to have. A great part of the employment in connection with motor tyres goes to the manufacture of cotton fabric. How many of us know to what extent employment has been given in Lancashire, in the last two years, in the manufacture of the cotton contents of motor tyres? Is the number 264 2,000, or is it 10,000? I do not know. None of us can have the information. I am inclined to guess that the total is. nearer the higher figure.

Then in the manufacture of road motor vehicles we know that the number of employed persons, apart from motor cycles and tyres and all accessories, since the Duties were imposed, has increased from before the first year of the McKenna Duties until to-day there are something like 170,000 persons employed. That is a very satisfactory increase. We have no knowledge of the number of persons who are engaged in making up the accessories, the body work and the wind-screens, which are given to contractors outside the industries. I know the Chancellor of the Exchequer is really anxious to know what would be the true number of these persons so employed.

I have given a few instances—I could give many more if time permitted—to show how utterly inadequate the returns of these industries are. It has been estimated by a responsible person in the last year that, since all the duties, and the licences on the sugar subsidy, were imposed by the action of the State, some 400,000 additional persons are employed direct, and the Lord Privy Seal has told us recently that for every person for whom you find employment, you will find employment for another in addition, so I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that we may be considering 800,000 persons. When we were told at Question time today that the additional number of employed persons since the end of the War is something like 800,000 to 1,000,000—it was 800,000 in the last five years—is it not a coincidence that this figure so nearly corresponds with the estimate I have just given. It is suggested that these duties may possibly be swept away. Government supporters are just as much concerned, I believe, in their hearts as hon. Members on these benches with regard to this terrible problem of rising unemployment. I am convinced that they will agree that we should have information of the success of this policy. That was the demand of the Balfour Commission. They recommended that these facts should be ascertained and the Liberal party, who tell us they are the champions of truth, will also, I believe, be ready to support this demand because, however keenly they may feel on the subject, they w[...] 265 not wish to act unless they had the whole of the facts before them. For these reasons I ask leave to introduce the Bill.