Orders of the Day — Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 23 July 1929.

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Photo of Sir Basil Peto Sir Basil Peto , Barnstaple

One of the objects of this Measure is to set up machinery for dealing with the unemployment problem. We have been told that the grants and guarantees under this Bill are not in any way final, but that the Bill is intended to carry us over until the House re-assembles. I think it is appropriate this afternoon to consider the policy for which this Bill provides the machinery. The principal part of the policy of the late Government in dealing with unemployment was to relieve productive industries of a part of their burdens. In this Bill the effect upon productive industries is not direct, although hon. Members will realise that to supply assistance to public utility undertakings which provide transport, water, gas, electricity and power is undoubtedly calculated to be of indirect assistance to productive industry. But there is no doubt that whatever may be done under this Bill must be of very small account. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Epping (Mr. Churchill) pointed out that the effect of the great scheme of the late Government which comes into operation on 1st October, will be to afford direct relief to productive industry to the extent of £30,000,000 a year, which means, capitalised, a grant to industry direct of something worth £600,000,000. I think it is appreciated in all quarters of the House that the only real solution of the unemployment problem lies in taking such steps as may be open to us to increase the prosperity of productive industry. Any other measures must be either palliative or else a method of indirect assistance. I am encouraged to think that this Bill, when it is passed, will do more than that. My reason for holding that view is that at the very outset of our Debates on 3rd July the Lord Privy Seal let the House into his confidence and showed the House the working of his mind. At the very commencement of his speech dealing with the Government's policy for the cure or mitigation of unemployment, he asked himself this question: What is there that we import to-day that we can make ourselves? "—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 3rd July, 1929; col. 93, Vol. 229.] That is the most momentous admission of the working of the right hon. Gentleman's mind, and it was very remarkable that the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Liberal party followed that up by saying: 'Substitute steel sleepers for wooden ones'; where you are going to buy them and whether any steps are to be taken to ensure that they are manufactured here?"—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 3rd July, 1929; col. 148, Vol. 229.] 4.0 p.m.

Those are not statements which conform to the existing interpretation of Free Trade. We have always been told that imports—steel sleepers or anything else—from foreign countries, are very good for employment in this country, for they encourage manufacturers here to produce something else in exchange for them. Yet we find, I am very pleased to notice, at the very outset of Government policy, on this positive side of it, this good, sound Protectionist sentiment: "What is there that we import to-day that we can make ourselves?" But there is another branch of the Government's policy, and I should take a more hopeful view of the operation and effect of this Bill if it were not for that other branch. We have been told in the last few days that it is the intention of the Government to introduce legislation to speed up the time when the school-leaving age can be raised to 15, in spite of the reports of three expert bodies who have considered this question, and that it is now intended by legislation to throw a great fresh burden upon local authorities and upon industry, either by increased rates or by increased direct taxation, or by both. At the other end of the scale we are told that it is the Government's policy to take steps—they are now having an inquiry into the subject, one of the many inquiries that are going on—to get people out of industry at an earlier age. You cannot take people out of industry at the age of 60, or any other age, without providing them with the means of subsistence, and there, again, you have a part of the Government's programme which means an enormous addition to the annual Budget of this country, an immense addition to the burden that is placed upon industry.

Therefore, we find that on one side the Government are taking steps, as they do under this Bill, in the same direction as the policy of the late Government, and in the other part of their policy they intend to initiate legislation which will re-impose burdens which we have been taking off industry, and will, in fact, neutralise this branch of their own work. Coupled with the Government's policy to remove all the Safeguarding Duties and the duties on which we can give Imperial Preference, it seems to me that the part of the Lord Privy Seal is indeed the part of Sisyphus. As I see it, he is by this Bill busily trying to roll painfully up the hill a great mass of unemployment, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer, behind his back, all the time is acting like the immutable law of gravity in order to undo that work. While the Lord Privy Seal is busy trying to fill the bath with his little pint pot, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is pulling out the plug of the waste pipe, by repealing the Safeguarding Duties, doing away with Imperial Preference, and, indeed, undoing his work by a part of his programme which involves placing burdens upon industry. As far as I am concerned, so long as the Government proposals, and particularly this one of the Lord Privy Seal, proceed on the lines of this Bill, and even indirectly assist the productive industries of this country, he will have my whole-hearted support, but when he proceeds with other Measures that have been outlined, not only in the Speech from the Throne, but in the election programme of the party who are now on the opposite benches, and imagines that he is going to cure, or help to cure, this problem of unemployment by putting a fresh burden of rates and taxes upon the industry of the country, then I shall oppose him at every stage.

It will be in order, I think, to point out, in passing, that this Bill and the Colonial Development Bill, where finance is to be provided to carry out transport work, such as the Zambesi Bridge, and other work, will be neutralised by the proposals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. What is the use of developing transport if we take no stops to see that the goods transported will be raw material for our industries at home, and manufacturing produce which is finding employment in this country? I think these general considerations ought to be brought to the attention of the House. I do not want to strike any gloomy note as to the success of this part of the Government's programme. I not only wish it every success, but I believe it may be of very great use. Therefore, I am satisfied that we of the Opposition are pursuing a wise course in lending the assistance we have to the passage of this Bill, and not giving it any serious opposition, or, still more, dividing against it; but I wish to contrast the operations of this Bill with the other, as I think, injurious part of the Government programme as far as the unemployment problem is concerned, in case we should be accused of inconsistency in having started by supporting the Government and assisting them in dealing with unemployment, if when we meet again in the Autumn and later, we find it necessary to point out that they are themselves, by the proposals they will then bring before the House, defeating the very purpose which is enshrined in this Bill.