Mr. Fraserasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement to allay the fears of many people in the Development Areas that Government plans to rehabilitate these areas by guiding in new industries will be cancelled out by the lessening of the scope of basic industries, particularly steel, in which curtailment is being effected now and the labour being dispersed to other areas.
§ Mr. DaltonAs stated in paragraph 24 of the White Paper on Employment Policy, "the first line of attack on the problem of unemployment in these unbalanced areas must be to promote the prosperity of the basic industries on which they primarily depend—coal, steel, engineering and shipbuilding." The introduction of new industries into these areas is necessary, in order to supplement, but not to replace, these basic industries.