A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
jT is almost incredible that no record exists of • the number of identity cards in issue at the present time. Identity cards were instituted in 1939, and among the uses for which they were adapted it might have been supposed that registration of the numbers and movement of the population would be foremost. Yet according to the Minister of Health, who disclosed the absence of any record in a statement in the House of Commons last week (and who, to do
' him justice, seemed as astonished as anyone that such a state of affairs should exist) cards have been issued by various local authorities, and cancelled when the holders die—if they -ever are cancelled,—without any attempt at compiling comprehensive statistics. The fact, of course, immensely increases the argument for taking a proper census at the earliest possible Moment. A glance at the row of volumes containing the immense mass of information which the last census, in 1931, produced underlines emphatically the need for another such national return before 1951, which might be con- sidered the normal census date. Meanwhile I have succeeded in eliciting the fact that the number of ration-books in issue on January 31st this year was 45,109,300. This gives probably the best indica- tion of the present size of the civilian population, subject to the increase since January due to releases from the forces. * * * *
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