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713 Parliament ON THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE MEDICUS, MP THE debates on the King’s Speech are over and in the two final debates, one on the amendment moved by Mr. Greenwood and the other on that moved by the ILP group, the House got down to important principles. The ILP with its three members led by Mr. Maxton could only muster five supporters because it rather turns away from the world and as Mr. Attlee says lives in an ivory tower of dreams. But the ILP amendment did at least indicate the right of any minority to be heard, and that is fundamental for the work of our democratic parliament. The Speaker is careful to maintain this right so that it sometimes seems that the dissident minority have a greater opportunity of airing their views than the official cohorts of the majority parties. Mr. Greenwood for the Labour Party and Sir William Jowett for the Govern- ment both referred to the need for international security against war as the pre-requisite of the large-scale planning of a better,world. But Mr. Eden made it more definite and did indeed devote more time to foreign policy than either of the two main speakers before him. " What will happen when the fighting is over," said Mr. Eden, " is that these Great Powers, and particularly ourselves, the United States and Russia, will have a virtual monopoly of armed strength, and that armed strength must be used in the name of the United Nations to prevent a repetition of aggression." But it was essential that the independence of smaller nations should be restored and secured; " in any world system that is to operate all states will have to play their part." The problem of the immediate relief work in Europe, and elsewhere, which will fall to be done when the Cease Fire sounds, came up for discussion, but only in a pre- liminary way. The original proposal of the meeting of representatives of the United Nations, held at St. JamesPalace in September, 1941, was that a fact-finding committee, with Sir Frederick Leith-Ross as chairman, should assess the needs of the nations of Europe. Some- thing seems to have gone amiss with this project. No report of the committee has been published, and appar- ently no -report has been submitted to a meeting of representatives of the United Nations, for no meeting has been held since September of last year. The programme was upset by the Japanese attack in the East. Our own resources of food and materials have been largely used up. The responsibility for accumulat- ing new reserves falls on our Dominions and on the USA. The recent announcement that Mr. Lehman, retiring governor of New York, has been appointed by President Roosevelt to organise American participation in these relief activities has given rise to speculation as to what coordination of relief responsibilities by the United Nations does in fact exist. The problem of control and coördination, on the political side evidently needs some reconsideration and Parliament may be expected to turn its attention in this direction in the New Year. The headline sensation of the week was the publication of the Beveridge report. The guarantee of -financial security for all classes from birth to death has captured the support of a majority of members of all parties. The fact that the scheme almost incidentally assures a more or less complete nationalisation of the medical services and institutions is accepted as if it were already an accomplished fact. The report as a whole is to be considered in the New Year so that it looks as if Parliament will be very busy laying the foundations of the new world in 1943. FROM THE PRESS GALLERY Rational Rationing SPEAKING on the Government’s plans for postwar reconstruction in the debate on the King’s Speech on Dec. 1, Sir William Jowitt explained the brevity of his remarks on health by saying that the Minister of Health had under active review all the health and hospital services of this country. Mr. Brown had made one statement not long ago, and in due course he would doubtless have something further to say. Sir William confined himself to the question of food policy and nutri- tion. Surely, he claimed, we had learned something about these matters during the war. The Ministry of Food had built up an organisation which distributed the nation’s food so as to secure the proper feeding of all classes to a degree never before achieved. Means had been devised for getting the food to the people in the best condition, in the right proportions, with a minimum of waste and with little regard to the extent or the size of the consumer’s income. We had acquired ’ what was perhaps more important than any piece of administrative mechanism-a new sense of corporate responsibility. We were satisfying the basic needs of even the humblest individual citizen. Never before had so much attention been given to the food require- ments of mothers and young children as in these war years. But thoughtful people asked, " Is it only in a period of war that special priorities are to be provided for workers, mothers, young children and infants ? Is it conceivable that what has been done to keep our people in good health and good heart in a period of food shortage shall cease to be done when supplies become abundant again ? " Sir William said he could not believe that the wise development which had taken place in the last few years would be abandoned after the war was over. Health or the Colomes Viscount CRANBORNE, until recently Secretary of State for the Colonies, made a spirited defence of British administration in the Colonial Empire in a speech in the House of Lords on Dec. 3. Education and health, he said, in many ways went together. In medicine also we needed the mass attack, and for it we required a trained staff supplied by the Colonial peoples themselves. Medical schools were at work in East and West Africa, in Ceylon, Malta and Fiji, turning out doctors. Nurses and medical auxiliaries were being trained. Hospitals were being constructed or enlarged. Investigations of the utmost value were being carried out by our own organisations and by the Rockefeller Foundation. Slowly but steadily the problems of malaria, yellow fever, venereal disease, malnutrition and tuberculosis were .being tackled. And in this connexion Lord Cranborne paid a tribute to the work of the Colonial Medical Service, who in remote, unhealthy, fever-ridden districts were giving their lives for the welfare of the native populations. After education and health the third great need was social and economic security. Here again while the war had created difficulties it had speeded up the production of food for local use, and this should have a permanent effect in raising the standard of living in many Colonies. It had stimulated action towards greater self-sufficiency in local food supplies and an interest in the development of mixed farming. It was to be hoped that the progress made would be con- solidated after the war. QUESTION TIME Medical Inspection of School-children Mr. D. L. LIPSON asked the President of the Board of Education he if would withdraw circular 1604, which recom- mended the curtailment of medical inspection of children in elementary schools so that there would be no routine medical examination of school-children from their entry to school at five years of age until their last year of school life.-Mr. R. A. BUTLER replied : The medical man-power position has neces- sitated the recommendations made in the circular. In some areas the staff is insufficient to carry out the full programme of medical inspection. Mr. LIPSON : Is the Minister aware that some local authorities believe that regular medical inspection is as necessary in war time as in peace, and have the staffs to do so ? ’/ Is the intention of the circular that more school medical officers will be called up for military service ? ’/ Sir FRANCIS FREMANTLE : Is it not a fact that nurses and teachers can exercise extremely good supervision over the children, and that there is probably very little difference in the routine ? ’/ —Mr. BUTLER: There is special reference in the circular to the work that nurses can do, and I hope that they will take the work up. It is not the object of the circular to make the ser- vice more restricted, but to make the best use of the man- power available. I undertake to do my best for the service in war-time conditions. Mr. LirsoN: Will the Minister undertake to prevent more medical officers being called up ? 2 —Mr. BUTLER: I have said that I will do my best, but I must
