Empire Social Hygiene Year - Book, 1934; Wien . and LTnwin. 15s.)
- - - - - - - - -- THE British Social Hygiene Council, which is responsible for this, the first, issue of the. Empire, YearSook,was estabz lished in 1914 to carry out the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Venereal Disease. Sinee its formation, the aims of the Council have been widely extended; not only geographically but also in content. The venereal diseases are uniquely the fruit of corrigible educational inadequacy and social maladjustment ; and the problems which these diseases raise cannot possibly be solved without reference to the environmental circumstances ultimately responsible. The president of the British Social Hygiene Council is Sir Basil Blackett, and, in the foreword which he contributes to this volume, he admirably summarizes the spirit with which he has, not unsuccessfully, endeavoured to infuse the body over which he presides. He gives to the old catch- word, " the white man's burden," a new interpretation— more generous and less unctuous than that which at one time was associated with it. " If the British Empire," he says, has one duty to the world which is more important, and more vital, than any other, it is, that it should combine a readiness to experiment, a readinesa to meet the -needs of the new era by new methods and new instruments, with a firm determination that the freedom which our ancestors , won for us shall not be compromised by any form of tyranny, however concealed."
No one who shares this point of view, and is anxious to co-operate in giving it effective expression, should fail to read and study the valuable articles included in this year- book. In addition it constitutes an `essential book of refer- ence, summarizing as it do the hygienic regulations obtaining in each one of our donaaons and colonies, together with the names of the responsible'officials. • - -
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