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local government of London was achieved, and the time appears to
have arrived for a similar act for the better local government of the
capital. It is an immense problem, full of difficulties, and one to
which much thought has been given by many of the best minds; it
is, in all probability, insoluble. Like many other folk working in
local government, I think it would be well if the service were totally
divorced from politics. lam aware that this is not possible until some
radical change takes place in human nature, but I have spent much
time in considering the problem as it affects this Borough in the public
health side of its sunctions, and it seems to me that the time has arrived
for it to be approached from a somewhat different angle.
Local government has two prevalent habits of mind which are
very convenient from the point of view of the official but not so satisfactory
from the point of view of the governed —I mean secrecy and
anonymity. So far as secrecy is concerned, I remember receiving
documents marked " Confidential" from a high authority when the
subject of the confidential documents was on the agenda for the Public
Health Committee at which I was supposed, as Medical Officer of
Health, to attend and to advise. As to what I mean by anonymity, I
remember an occasion when a diphtheria swab taken in a school on a
Friday afternoon was found to be positive on the following morning
when neither the name nor the whereabouts of the doctor who took
the swab could be discovered.
I think there are two or three principles which should always
be in the mind of a medical officer: firstly, he should always remember
that he is the servant of the public; secondly, if he has a job to do he
should do it at once; and thirdly, he should examine complaints
personally. Far too much time is spent on office work and at committees
and too Little time is given to personal investigation of the
conditions of the district. This suggestion that a medical officer
should be well acquainted, personally, with his district and, incidentally,
with his staff, is not by any means universally observed and, in
itself, provides a clear indication of the size of units which ought to be
contemplated ; for one man certainly could not deal properly with a
population of more than two hundred thousand or so and have much
personal knowledge of these people and their problems. The present
policy seems to be to combine the areas of two small boroughs to
make one district for the purpose of public health administration
and, if action of this kind is taken for Bermondsey, it will almost
certainly mean some arrangement with the adjacent borough of
Southwark. Some such combination will, undoubtedly, come to pass
in the future and it is to be hoped that it will not be merely the combination
of two departments but that there will be the actual amalgamation
of boroughs, giving to the new borough a high degree of
independence of action so as to preserve, so far as possible, local
interest in local government and to avoid, if possible, the ponderously
slow reactions of a very large authority.
There have been few changes in the functions and work of the
Council so far as food control is concerned. The Food and Drugs