SHORTER NOTICES
Two social workers have analysed here the conditions under which children live in dockland. Stories of individual families are inter- spersed with a general survey and descriptions of a slum neighbour- hood. Homes are damp, dirty and woefully overcrowded ; the streets, with their low characters, their fun-fairs and bombed build- ings,,are full of inducements to crime. There are feW open spaces, and play-centres are also too few and have too much of a school atmosphere. The schools themselves 'are hidepus buildings, under- staffed with tired teachers, who give a superficial and scrappy educa- tion. What the book chiefly stresses, however, is that parents can be cruel and neglectful, and the child's life made a misery and his health undermined, for years without any interference from the authorities. Some of the case histories are heart-breaking ; but the authors add constructive plans for the future. One is that there should be a national survey of family conditions and another that there should be a series of training homes where whole families can be reformed together. This is a depressing but practical little book 'which should be read by anybody interested in child welfare.
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