Of course, we feel keenly about the clearance of slums,
which is essential. We could never place this in the category of what is usually described as relief work, that is to say, work which is not urgently needed at the moment but which unemployed men are turned on to at varying degrees of loss to the State in order that they may be saved from the disaster of unemployment. Slum clearance is truly economic because it brings to the nation a direct return in improved health and higher industrial efficiency. Even so, however, demo- lition and building are skilled work and the Labour Party itself, we fear, would not consent to members of one union doing the work of another. What we ask is that all the labour suitable and available should be turned as soon as possible on to a nation-wide scheme of slum clearance. There will be intense dissatisfaction if Mr. Neville Chamberlain is not ready in the autumn to point the way clearly to a great campaign of clearance.
