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Appendix "J."
EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF DISTRESS COMMITTEE.
A Sub-Committee was tormed, constituted as follows :—Mr.
Percival Rees (Chairman); Councillors Clark,
Cresswell, Danielli, Fletcher, and Jackson, Lieut.
Sanders, R.N., Rev. J. Cooney, Mr. Fowle, and Miss Parkes,
and the Chairman and Members of the Central Body, ex-officio;
the duties being to enquire and report as to the conditions of
labour, to consider the Record Papers when completed, and to
interview men selected for employment and emigration.
Sub-Committee
and reference.
Applications from unemployed persons were received daily at
Reception at
Office.
the Town Hall, Wandsworth, during the winter
months, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 12
o'clock noon.
The particulars entered on the Record Papers were investi-
Investigation.
gated and verined by personal visits to the homes
of the applicants by the investigators, and references
as to character were obtained from previous employers. No
personal investigations were made outside the Borough.
The Sub-Committee considered the completed Record Papers
Classification.
and classified the applications into four divisions:—
Preference, Eligible, Unsuitable and Undesirable.
In recommending applicants to the Central Body as suitable for
employment, the Sub-Committee gave preference to men of good
character, and distinguished, as far as possible, between the
habitual "out of work" and the applicant who was unemployed
through trade depression or kindred causes.
The forms of the applicants for emigration were carefully con-
Emigration.
sidered before being forwarded to the Central Body,
and single men were asked to appear before the
Sub-Committee in order to judge of their suitability, and the
responsibility of their guarantors.
The wages of the men from this Borough, employed on the
London County Council and Royal Parks, were
paid on Saturday morning at the Town Hall,
Payment of
wages.