SOLVING THE SLUM PROBLEM [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—As a rider to your article, I venture to suggest that Mr. Neville Chamberlain has, ready to his hand, a useful precedent. In East London, Durham, and other places, popularly elected Boards have of late been superseded by Commissioners appointed to reform the system under which relief in various forms has been too indiscriminately granted.
The fault of these Boards was " doing too much " : the default of some of the Housing Authorities in London and elsewhere is doing too little. Mr. Chamberlain might supersede them by Commissions appointed by the Ministry of Health ; and, in order to secure a consistent policy for a large area, one or more members from each Commission might be ap- pointed (or elected) to serve on a " Central London Housing Authority," which could view the problem as a whole.
If this seems to be too abrupt a break, or if it seemed prefer- able (as Gardiner says it was to Cromwell) " to get something tolerable done by consent, rather than something better done by forcing it on unwilling minds," the present Housing Authorities might be offered a sufficient but not too long a time to prepare and submit schemes of their own.
If they refused, or presented inadequate proposals, they would be superseded. Even then the new Central Authority might include at least one member from each local Health Authority, in addition to some Ministry of Health officials and some unofficial members of the type of Sir Tudor Walters and the authorities of the Magdalen Mission. But these are questions of detail. The point to be noted is that there is already a trail " blazed" and a precedent set.—I am, Sir, &c., W. K. STRIDE. Besselskigh Rectory, Abingdon, Berks.
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