14 FEBRUARY 1925, Page 2

With this speech may be -coupled the very able utter-

ances of Sir Kingsley Wood, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health. In one of them at Chelsea he hammered in, the esscntial "Are the slum dweller and his family to continue to wait if there are other means. available by which they may be quickly and decently housed ? " Sir Kingsley Wood also in his speech at the Holborn Restaurant made a point which deserves every possible support, not merely from the point of view of the Housing question, but from that.of the general configura- tion of the community. Speaking for himself and Mr. Chamberlain, he declared that at the present time we must encourage private enterprise, but especially what he would call " owner-occupiership:" "We believe," he added, "that the more people own their houses, the better it will be for the State." That is absolutely true ; but we would say, both to Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Kingsley Wood, that if that is their feeling they must leave no stone unturned to induce the Government to take up this question of ownership—the key to the whole social problem. We would implore .them to remember that there is such a thing as on' canny in politics as well as in industry, and, alas ! the Unionist Party are terribly proficient practisers of that ignoble art.