Friday, July 10th, was given in the Commons to the
second reading of the Rural Housing Bill, designed to encourage local authorities to build cottages and to empower the Ministry of Health to build where the local authorities could not. On Monday, that Christian champion of those who are condemned to live in slums, the Bishop of Southwark, started a discussion upon unhealthy dwellings, and was assured that the Govern- ment were " watching the situation." This was very cold comfort, but, as " Guardian " points out in another column, they had a plausible reason for their apparent lack of-sympathy. The Commons resumed the Report Stage of the Marketing Bill, which they later read a third time. The Minister of Agriculture was fairly amenable to reasonable changes. The chief complaints against the Bill were on account of the bureaucratic powers given and the coercion implied. * *
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