In 1908 the board recommended that the Society should become a member of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, and this recommendation was unanimously agreed to by the delegates. During this year one of the most notable events was the visit of a deputation of Austrian co-operators, including Dr Karpeles, who were making a tour of British Co-operative institutions. During one of the days they were in Glasgow the foreign visitors were the guests of the U.C.B.S., and were enthusiastically welcomed. One cannot help wondering whether the welcome would be quite so enthusiastic and unstinted if they were to return to-day. In a speech which he made during his visit to the bakery, Dr Karpeles pointed out that in a Parliament of 517 representatives they in Austria had 88 Labour representatives, and contrasted this with the thirty or so in the British House of Commons. He also referred to Co-operators as all belonging to one family, and stated that the members of the deputation left Scotland, not only full of gratitude for the reception given them, but full also of new ideas for the spread of Co-operation. That was only ten years ago, but to-day Austria is a dismembered wreck, and International Co-operation has received a setback from which it may take a generation to recover. ANOTHER UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS. Only three years had elapsed since the last unemployment crisis ended, but at the September 1908 quarterly meeting the chairman felt under the necessity of stating that they were in the midst of the worst unemployment crisis of the last thirty years, and voiced the sympathy of those present with the sufferers, a sympathy which he had no doubt would take practical form ere the meeting ended. Later in the meeting it was agreed that £100 be subscribed to the Lord Provost’s Fund for the unemployed, and, in the course of the discussion of this proposal, it was stated that the Baking Society had already given free bread to the value of £300. It was decided that in order to avoid overlapping the distribution of free bread in Glasgow should cease, but the directors were empowered to deal with applications received from outside Glasgow. The unemployment epidemic continued right through 1909 and well into 1910, and had not quite disappeared in 1911. It was the most serious in its results which had ever been experienced by Britain since it became an industrial nation. RAILWAYMEN’S CONGRESS ENTERTAINED.