THE MINISTRY, 1921.

CABINET MINISTERS.

Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the Mr. A. Bonar Law (to March 17).

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (Lord Lee of Fareham (to Feb. 12).

MINISTERS NOT IN THE CABINET.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- The Earl of Crawford (to April 2).

Mr. Stanley Baldwin (to April 2).

Financial Secretary of the Treasury Lt.-Commander E. Hilton Young (from

April 2).

(Lord Edmund Talbot (Viscount Fitzalan) (to April 2).

Joint Parliamentary (Patronage), Captain F. E. Guest (to April 2).

Secretaries

Mr. Charles A. McCurdy (from April 2).
Lt.-Col. Leslie Wilson (from April 2.)

Sir P. Lloyd-Greame (from April 2).

Lord Londonderry (to July 18).
Lord Gorell (from July 18).

Lt.-Col. L. C. M. S. Amery (to April 2).
Hon. E. F. L. Wood (from April 2).

Mr. Cecil Harmsworth.

Sir J. L. Baird.

The Earl of Lytton.

Viscount Peel (to April 2).

Sir R. Sanders (from April 2).

Lt. Col. L. C. M. S. Amery (from April 2). (Sir A. Griffith-Boscawen (to Feb. 12). Earl of Ancaster (from April 8).

SCOTLAND.

Mr. Robert Munro (in the Cabinet).
Mr. T. B. Morison.

Mr. C. D. Murray.

IRELAND.

Viscount French (to April 2).
Viscount Fitzalan (from April 2).
Sir J. H. Campbell (to June 27).
Sir John Ross (from June 27).
Sir H. Greenwood (in the Cabinet).
Mr. D. Henry (to June 10).
Mr. T. W. Brown (from June 10).
Mr. D. M. Wilson.

ANNUAL REGISTER

FOR THE YEAR

1921.

PART I.

ENGLISH HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

A PERIOD OF DEPRESSION.

THE year 1921 presented features which were in striking contrast to the few years which had preceded it. Prices, which had risen continuously during and after the war, reached their highest point in November, 1920. At the end of that year they began to fall, and the fall was maintained throughout 1921. The fall of prices was concomitant with a depression of trade and increased unemployment. As soon as prices fell wages also began to fall, but strikes were not nearly so numerous as they had been in the two previous years. True, one great strike occurred which was perhaps the most formidable of any that had happened, but on the whole working men were not so satisfactorily situated for enforcing their demands on employers, and the reductions of wages necessitated by the fall in prices were received much more calmly than had been anticipated. Unemployment had already become a serious problem at the end of 1920; during 1921 it continued to be a source of constant anxiety to the Government.

They attempted to deal with the problem in two ways. The first was directed towards the revival of overseas trade and the stimulation of the industries which supplied the home market. The second was more definitely concerned with measures for mitigating and relieving distress. Early in the year the Cabinet determined to appoint an Advisory Committee to review the situation and to propose remedies. The Committee was to be under the chairmanship of Dr. Macnamara

A

and to consist of ten other members, five representing the employers and five representing the workmen. In the meantime the Government issued a request to employers of labour to resort to part-time employment rather than dismissals when there was insufficient full-time work for the whole staff. The Government itself was acting on this principle in the dockyards, arsenals, and other establishments under its control. This measure did not, of course, profess to increase employment but only to spread such employment as there was over the whole of the normal staff.

These "short-time" proposals of the Government were received without enthusiasm. For the manufacturers it was urged that the scheme was impracticable, and that the Government should go to the root of the matter by removing the Excess Profits Duty or by a system of protection from competition of countries where the exchanges had collapsed. Labour leaders did not at first oppose the scheme, but insisted that a living wage must be guaranteed.

A proposal which attracted considerable attention was one for granting credits to European countries for the purpose of facilitating a revival of British trade and thereby alleviating unemployment. On January 6 a meeting was held at the Board of Trade between Sir Robert Horne, the President, and his advisors, and the General Managers of a number of leading Insurance Companies to consider the inauguration of an export credit insurance scheme which it was understood the Government would be prepared to support.

The formation of Dr. Macnamara's Committee to inquire into unemployment was attended by unexpected difficulties. The Labour Party, represented by a joint meeting of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and the National Executive of the Labour Party, refused to take any part in the inquiry on the ground that the terms of reference were not sufficiently wide. This at least was the reason formally given for refusing to nominate members to the Government Committee. The Labour Party preferred to formulate its own programme independently and then to urge the acceptance of it on the Government and on Parliament. Twice Sir Robert Horne offered to broaden the terms of reference, but the joint Labour Conference still persisted in its refusal to co-operate. They did not delay, however, in setting about to formulate their own proposals. They called a Conference for January 27 and issued a notice to the effect that, since the present crisis threatened to overwhelm the Government, the policy of labour must again be declared in the most emphatic and convincing manner. At the same time the Scottish Trade Union Congress at Glasgow passed a resolution condemning the proposal of the Government to put the workers on short time as useless and of no avail to meet the present alarming crisis, and demanding the opening up of trade with Central Europe and Russia.

Meanwhile the figures of unemployment continued to increase. On January 14 the number of workpeople on the registers of the Employment Exchanges was 925,000, an increase of 72,000 over the previous week. The number of unemployed men was 601,000, women 236,000, boys 41,000, and girls 47,000. The increase of unemployment had come about gradually since November 26 when the numbers were 520,000. Large as these figures appeared they did not represent the total amount of unemployment and of course supplied no measure of the amount of short time employment. The January issue of the Labour Gazette showed that at the end of December the proportion of unemployed among the workpeople covered by the National Insurance Act was 58 per cent. The Trade Union figures relating mainly to skilled men showed a percentage at the same date of 6'1 per cent.

The Labour policy was soon drawn up and was published on January 24. It demanded the immediate re-opening of trade with Russia and concerted international arrangements for the stabilisation of the exchanges and the extension of credits. It called for the termination of "military adventures" in the East and oppression in Ireland. It demanded unemployment benefit at the rate of 40s. per week for each householder, 25s. for each single man or woman, and allowance for dependents. Where short time was adopted unemployment allowance on the foregoing scale was advocated. The programme insisted further upon the legal establishment of an eight-hour working day and the prohibition of overtime. Necessary public works were to be undertaken including restoration and development of roads, railways, and waterways, electric power in bulk, school buildings, afforestation, agriculture, harbours, and land reclamation. Relief works were declared to be wasteful, and protests were made against wage reductions and the policy of arresting the growth of education and local improvements and the slowing down of housing. The manifesto further declared that the problem of unemployment arose from the very nature of the capitalist system. This programme was unanimously endorsed by the special Conference of the Trade Union Congress and the Labour Party which had been called for January 27. This was the position which the discussion had reached at the end of January, and little more was done on either side before the meeting of Parliament.

Unemployment, however, was far from being the only subject which gave the Government anxiety at the beginning of the year. The state of Ireland showed no signs whatever of improvement, and Irish politics occupied as large a share of public attention during 1921 as they had during the previous two years. The beginning of January witnessed the commencement of a new Government policy under which reprisals were officially authorised. On January 1 a number of houses were destroyed by the Military Authorities in retaliation for outrages