A CHALLENGE TO THE NEW MINISTER OF HEALTH [To the
Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sia,—You do well to remind the President of the Royal Institute of British Architects that it is not in Shorediteh alone that the " latent revolutionist " is likely to be aroused by " inertia and indifference " (to borrow his and your mild phraseology). Ruthless exposure has remedied much " groks and palpable evil " in Westminster, Southwark and Chelsea. What about Wandsworth ?
The London County Council, responsible as it is for our main sewers, has known for years that the river Wandle not infre- quently overtops its insufficient banks before 'entering the Thames, rushes through the adjoining houses and so inflicts intolerable hardships on the poor tenants. Perhaps the Borough Council might have done more. and very likely some local landlords are open to criticism: but of what use are repairs to a street of houses deliberately left exposed to inundation on this wholesale scale ?
When Lord Buckmaster and Mr. West, M.P., exposed in Parliament the sewer flooding experienced in Kensington, citizens there were unwilling to believe that they were telling the truth ; but they were telling the truth then and I am telling the truth now whether the London County Council likes it or not. It is not right that inhabited houses should be utilized as relief sewers in this way, even if it does save the ratepayers' pockets. This is a case where the Ministry of Health should have stepped in long ago : the Ministry is not in ignorance.
I invite the Minister of Health, the Chairman of the London County Council and the Mayor of 1Vandsworth to deny the truth of what I say ; and it is as open to any of your readers as it was to me to survey the Hogarthian landscape of Lyddon Grove from the Wandle bridge at its upper end.
Space forbids details : an interim report was published by the Rector of Tooting and others (including the Free Churches and the Salvation Army) dealing with another district of Wandsworth, and this report states that " the local authorities have ample knowledge . . ." I inspected Lyddon Grove myself a few days ago, and I shall be interested to see how the new Minister of Health deals with this exposure.
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