582 TRAKSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



Furniture. 



Furniture being largely a luxury trade has been considerably depressed since 

 the outbreak of war and is likely to remain so. The cheaper branchfes of the 

 trade have been less slack than the other part, and certain firms have replaced 

 men polishers by women, but as this is a woman's trade as much as a man's, 

 especially since the last strike, the replacement is no new feature due to the 

 War. In some cases, on the other hand, women French polishers have been 

 unemployed owing to the shortage of skilled bench men. 



Large furniture firms have taken contracts for tents, kit-bags, mosquito- 

 nets, &c., and have taken on extra women to cope with the work, in some cases 

 opening new factories for the purpose. Women upholsterers and women drawn 

 from the lower branches of the tailoring trade have mainly come in to do this 

 work. 



Aeroplane contracts have also been placed with furniture firms, but up to the 

 present women have only made covers for the wings and ' doped ' them, i.e., 

 varnished, which again is normally women's work. 



In some factories and woi-kshops women are glueing ammunition boxes, but 

 here the line of demarcation between furniture and packing-case making is an 

 elusive one ; it is not possible to state whether they are displacing men or not. 



There appears to be no feeling among the furniture trade unions against 

 the further employment of women so long as they are paid the same piece- 

 work rates as the men. The view, however, taken by most trade unions and 

 employers is : 



(«) Much of the work is impossible without long training, which the women 

 are rarely prepared to give. 



(6) Much of it is too heavy for women. 



2. Land Settlement for Ex-Service Men. 

 By Christopher Turnor. 



1. The Importance of the Problem. — From such evidence as is at present 

 forthcoming, and arguing from what took place after the Boer War, there seems 

 little doubt that a large number of men now serving in the Forces will elect 

 a career on the land at the close of the War. If this is so, it is clear that the 

 machmery for providing them with land should be created without delay, and 

 be ready before we have the ex-Service men upon our hands, probably in their 

 thousands. Nationally and imperially it is a question of great importance. 

 Cultivators of the soil are more needed than any other type of citizen, both at 

 home and overseas. 



It is probable that when the War is over a time of slackness will come in 

 urban industry, which will make it all the more important that the land should 

 employ as many men as possible. The men settled upon the land must be settled 

 effectively and under conditions which will as far as possible guarantee success. 

 They must not merely be provided with land and then left to shift for them- 

 selves. Our Dominions are paying more and more attention to land settlement. 

 Sound and attractive conditions have been created. If we are to retain our 

 fair and necessary share of ex-Service men within the United Kingdom, we 

 must create conditions of settlement at least as sound and as attractive. 



While not grudging to our Dominions a share in the number of settlers, we 

 must ever keep in mind that the first essential is to build up the agricultural 

 population in the Mother Country, and from the overflow of that population to 

 send out to our Dominions the type of popuktion which they stand most in 

 need of. 



2. The Sufficienc-y of Land in the United Kingdotn.— There is sufficient land 

 available for a very large scheme of settlement at home. No attempt should be 

 made to create settlements in every county. They should be created where the 

 land and conditions are most favourable. Large areas of land change hands 

 every year, and land for the ex-Service men could as a rule be obtained in the 

 open market. Several hundred thousand acres of agricultural land change hands 



