23 JULY 1927, Page 14

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—As one who has worked for years in the cause of better housing for the poorest working-classes and found private representations to public authorities very disappointing, 'I weleothe most warmly your articles on Westminster housing, for I am convinced that publicity, and the spread of accurate inforniation, are the only effective means of getting reforrn.

Three hundred millions a year are spent by the nation on social service, besides millions of charity money; which no One should grudge, but what one does regret is that to a large extent much of this outlay is wasted, because we begin at the wrong end. We pile up an elaborate superstructure of welfare and still leave a rotten foundation of insanitary slums. Rate- payers of all classes allow their children to run very grave risks

while they •allow these breeding-places of rheumatism and infectious diseases to remain in their immediate midst. Some of the foulest slums in London are to be found near Cadogan Square, and, as you point out, close to Buckingham Palace.— National Council of Women ; Vice-President and Hon. Sec. Chelsea Housing Association.