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102
but I am inclined to think there might be advantage in keeping
the two classes of mothers apart."
Subsequently I reported to the Committee that I had had an
opportunity of conferring with Dr. Menzies of the London County
Council on this subject, and ascertained that administration regarding
foster-mothers falls to the duty of the London County Council,
and that he did not think his Committee would favour the scheme
of local registration of local foster-mothers, and of administration
in relation to them, by local authorities, as the foster-mothers
would get over-inspected, and would tire of visits made first by
inspectors of one authority and then those of another authorit) .
I also informed the Committee that I advocated the transference
of the duties regarding foster-mothers from the County Council to
local authorities, on the ground that it is preferable for each master
to rule in his own house, subject to the proviso that the power
should remain to the County Council to enforce action, or to undertake
the work themselves, in cases in which local authorities proved
negligent.
The Committee at the end of the year had not come to any
conclusion regarding the grants to foster-mothers.
PENSIONS MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Committee considered this
question during the year and presented the following report to the
Borough Council recommending that the proposal for the payment of
mothers' pensions in Great Britain be supported, and that the
Ministry of Health, the Parliamentary members of the Borough,
and Lady Rhondda's Committee be asked to support the scheme :—
Our attention has been called to the system of Mothers' Pensions
introduced by Judge Henry Neil and adopted in the U.S.A. by
thirty-five out of forty-eight states.