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Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
or mental weakness will have to be clothed, housed, and fed for the rest of their lives
by the Union of St. Saviour's. The total cost is lessened to some extent by the contribution
of the London County Council in aid of the local poor fund. The sum thus
contributed is, in point of fact, a money payment on the part of the Metropolis generally
towards the maintenance of the disabled folk attracted to London by the Blackfriars
Shelter. On the whole, the direct and indirect cost of this philanthropy to the ratepayers
of St. Saviour's may probably be estimated at several thousands of pounds per
annum. Whatever the amount, if the present system be maintained, it will go on
increasing year by year, as the permanently disabled pauper accumulate in the in
firmaries and asylums of the Union.
Supposing there were no shelter in St. Saviour's then the tramps coming up from
the country would be distributed pretty equally throughout the various Metropolitan
casual wards. For obvious reasons the Salvation Army chooses a poor district like
Blackfriars for night shelters. It follows, then, that the poorest Metropolitan Unions
have to pay the cost of tending the sick and disabled destitute persons attracted thither
by the Shelters. It is, moreover, equally clear that in this way the richer quarters
escape their fair and proper share of the burden.
The Salvation Army Shelters appear to be carried on with funds directly and
indirectly obtained from three sources: 1. Charitable donations. 2. The pence of the
poor. 3. The contributions of the ratepayers, both local and metropolitan. The facts
presented in this paper are the result of an economic analysis of a so-called philanthropic
scheme, the motives of which we do not for a moment call in question. The scheme
certainly does not stand the ordeal of a logical examination.
The cost of night shelter to the ratepayers, then, if we may argue from the case
of Blackfriars, is considerable. Surely, on the ground of the money expenditure alone,
the District Sanitary Boards should have a larger measure of control over institutions
of this kind. If this were the case the Medical Officer of Health would be better able
to cope with epidemic outbreaks in the shelters. The history of small-pox in Southwark.
during the past few years shows that the Blackfriars Shelter has played an active
part in spreading the disease, not only in the neighbourhood, but also throughout London.
This item is a further indirect burden thrown by the Shelters upon the metropolitan
ratepayers, who have to maintain the infectious fever hospitals.
Our main conclusion is that the Salvation Army Shelters attract a poor, shiftless,
and often disabled class of the community to the most poverty-stricken districts of
London, which are subsequently saddled with the cost of this ill-considered philanthropy.
So far as we can judge, the best way out of the difficulty would be to bring all such
night refuges under the Common Lodging-Houses Act. In this way not only the
economic, but the sanitary interests of ratepayers would be to some extent safeguarded.
Report of an Outbreak of Scarlet Fever in a Hospital within the District.
I have to report ten cases of scarlet fever, notified to me within the past fortnight
as having taken the disease and sickened in a hospital within your district.
This outbreak may, probably, be traced to the accidental presence in the hospital
of an infected parishioner, an infant whose death, which occurred within a few hours
of entry, was certified as due to congenital cardiac disease and diarrhœa. Of the ten
notifications mentioned, two only—both of nurses— were accepted by the officials at
the Central Office of the Metropolitan Asylums Board.
The remaining eight notifications were refused by the Board; and, after personal
application, I was advised to see the Resident Medical Official of the Hospital in
question, and suggest to him the desirability of complying with the strict letter of the
law by sending the notifications to the Medical Officers of Health for the various