12 APRIL 1924, Page 2

While expressing our thorough agreement with the principle of the

Bill, we must point out that there may be a danger. In a letter to the Times, Mf. Claud Mullins has shown that when the responsibility for the regis- tration of births rested jointly upon the father) and the mother, the law was often disregarded with impunity. Where each side put the blame upon the other in the case of a failure to register, it was generally found impossible to convict either. In a Bill which is animated entirely by a sincere desire for the welfare of children there may be some way of avoiding this danger, but it certainly ought not to be forgotten.

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