1 MAY 1925
Replying in the House of Commons to critics of his Budget, Mr Churchill referred to the high rate of unemployment and to the joint burden placed on industry by the pensions scheme and unemployment insurance. The Chancellor remarked that it was in the interests of Trade Unionists and employers to make sure that there was not growing up a general habit of learning how to qualify for unemployment insurance—an observation which raised a storm of protest from the Socialist benches. Mr Churchill said he had nothing to withdraw, and endeavoured to continue his speech, but his interruptors refused to listen to him. A division on the Prime Minister’s motion for the closure was challenged but not persisted in, and the Budget resolutions were adopted.
In the House of Commons Captain Foxcroft asked the Home Secretary whether, in view of the continued Bolshevist propaganda and the Communist outrages abroad, the Government would consider the deportation of such Russian Communists as are known plotters against Britain. Replying in the absence of his chief, the Under-Secretary for Home Affairs said the recent happenings abroad had not been overlooked, and all necessary steps had been taken to safeguard the interest of the country.
In the House of Lords the Agricultural Returns Bill and the Importation of Pedigree Animals Bill were read a second time.
The Prince of Wales was received with great cordiality on landing at Cape Town.
Captain Amundsen, in a wireless message from King’s Bay, Spitsbergen, gives further details of his preparations for the Polar flight. He refers to the Macmillan and Algarsson expeditions, and says: “We have little fear of being forestalled in the race for the Pole.”