State Officials and Relief The weakness of the Opposition -in
the House of Commons has been revealed in the very poor case they have put up in Committee against. the. administration of relief for the able-bodied unemployed (outside insurance) by the central Assistance Board. The real . grounds of objection to the Government's ..plan of removing relief from local bodies and handing it over .to State officials is not that civil servants. are peculiarly_ inhumane, but that the uniform administration of relief by regulation is too inelastic, that local knowledge and experience are jettisoned, that, much duplication or overlapping of local and central services will be inevitable, and that local authorities will still have to make payments to a service over which they have no shadow of control. However, the Government has made up its mind, and what matters most at . the present moment is , to ensure that local knowledge and voluntary effort should be given as much scope as possible so that they may continue to be opera- tive. Provision is made for the setting up of advisory committees. Will these committees have any real functions and any powers which will make it worth while for energetic voluntary workers to join them ? The regulations which, in due course, will be framed by the Board will be only less important than the Bill itself. * .* * *
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