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Act has been operated in this last year on the same lines as it was in
1920 though, of course, the statistics are different. So far as imported
food is concerned, there have been no special changes during my time
as Medical Officer of Health though many interesting problems have
arisen from time to time.
When I was a student, I was strongly advised by my teachers
to have nothing to do with services such as the asylum and public
health services; indeed, I did not choose the public health service
as a career but I came into it, somewhat by accident. As a patient in
hospital myself not so long ago, I heard two young doctors discussing
careers and saying that public health provided the laziest avenue in
the whole of medicine, and the dullest. Certainly it is true that a
job is what you make it, and I have never found time to be really lazy.
As for the criticism that it is a dull career that is not by any means
true here. I have been very happy with my colleagues, not only in
the Public Health Department but in other departments, and though
I have never had anything to do with local politics I have also been
very fortunate in the committees it has been my duty to attend and,
especially, in the chairmen of the Public Health and Maternity &
Child Welfare Committees, with whom it has been really a pleasure to
work. On the other hand, to show that life has not been dull in
Bermondsey in my time, it is only fair to say that I have twice been
present at a committee when it was moved by a member that I be
dismissed, I have been offered a quite substantial money bribe by an
importer of food, I have four times been threatened with violence
(once with a nasty looking weapon), and once I was actually attacked.
I have made many real friends, however, and have come to the end
of my term of office with many happy memories and one regret only—
that the time has come to go !
I am, Madam, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
D. M. CONNAN.