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To the Mayor, Aldermen. and Councillors of
the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you the 95th Annual Report
upon the health of the Borough of Lambeth. The general health
of the population has been good and the mortality among children
has been almost negligible from dangerous infectious diseases
which have been conspicuously absent. The Registrar General
has estimated the population to be 229,100 which is some 1,900
less than in the previous year. The birth rate was 15.40, again
lower than the previous year, but the general mortality rate
at 12.86 per 1,000 population is nearly a point higher than in
1950.
There has been an increase again in the coloured population
(luring the year mainly from Jamaica and West Africa, which is
presenting a problem the answer to which is still awaited. The
Council requested the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint
Committee to take action on their behalf and consultations have
been held with officials of the Ministry of Local Government
and Planning and with the Colonial Office. More special action
has as a result been taken to prevent stowaways from reaching
the British Isles, but these are a relatively small minority of
the newcomers. Coloured members of populations in the British
Empire are rightly entitled to a British passport and if they
are able to land here they are entitled to stay and to enjoy
also all the benefits of the Welfare State. Their way of life
is so different from ours, however, that they are unable to mix
easily, quite apart from the colour question. The higher
standard of living here which they enjoy whether in work or no
is an attraction which encourages others to follow their
friends to Britain. They are cold-shouldered in some directions
and encouraged, almost pampered, in others and are almost
always at odds with the white population. Whether the practical
solution accepted and adopted by France will ever be favoured
here is a matter of conjecture, but theproblem is here, a small
one now, but growing. It would seem to be expedient to attack it
before it assumes the proportions reached in other parts of the
world.
There have been a number of retirements and resignations
from the Sanitary Inspectors since the war. and replacement is
increasingly difficult. The present number is still one short
out of nineteen. The course of training for the qualifying
certificate is longer and the examination more difficult than
it was before the war, and wider knowledge is required. The scale
of salary fixed by the Whitley Council has not kept pace with
modern trends and is not high enough to attract students whose
numbers have fallen steeply in the last two years. It is to be