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137
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Hackney, N.E.
Wi November, 1914.
To the Chairman and Members
of the Public Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
In accordance with your instructions, I submit herewith a
report for the month of October on the following matters :—
(a) The nutrition of children under school age and how far
it is affected by conditions arising out of the War ;
(b) Unemployment or distress amongst homeworkers, especially
in the cabinet-making and clothing trades.
I should like to refer, in the first place, to the following statement,
contained in the letter received from the Secretary of the
Intelligence Department of the Local Government Board, at whose
request this report is made, viz., " It is not desired that he (the
Medical Officer of Health) or any of his officers should undertake
special research in the matter, but simply that he should make a
short report on what is ascertained in the ordinary course of
duty."
I wish only, in connection with this statement, to say that if
I had not gone beyond what is ordinarily ascertained by the officers
of the Public Health Department in the course of their duty, in
obtaining information as to the extent children under school age
were suffering in their nutrition, owing to conditions brought about
by the War, or the amount of unemployment or distress amongst
home-workers, the information would have been valueless.
K