A letter appeared in Wednesday's Times signed by the Bishop
of Birmingham and representatives of various public bodies which draws attention to the Report of the Commission on the Feeble-Minded, published nearly two years ago. The Report urged the necessity for establishing compulsory super- vision and a central authority, and its findings were supported unreservedly by both the Majority and Minority Reports of the Poor Law Commission. "We cannot but believe," the letter proceeds, " that the change in the political situation consequent upon the death of King Edward gives an oppor- tunity for some one great measure of social reform being given an immediate place in the attention of Parliament
and we believe that there is literally no matter at once so urgent and so ripe for treatment as the care of the feeble-minded." We most heartily endorse this plea, but would add the hope that the Report of the Vagrancy Com- mittee—also an "agreed matter "—may be dealt with in conjunction with legislation on the feeble-minded.
Previous page
