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themselves as originally arranged and that the houses in Arlington Road,
suggested in the original programme and which by agreement with the London County
Council were deferred might be included.
It will be seen that of the eight areas, comprising 172 houses,, which
constitute the Borough Council s slum clearance programme for the five year
period ending 1960 four areas have been dealt with, and that these four areas
comprise 106 houses
The London County Council have already dealt with the small Aldenham Street
Area I am informed that it is hoped to represent the Baynes Street, etc and
Tovey Place Areas in the middle of 1957, and that the Seaton Place, etc, and
Raglan Street/Crown Place Areas will be dealt with later in the five year period.
Smoking and Cancer
In view of the report of the Medical Research Council on smoking and
cancer of the lung, Dr. Tracy and I feel that we are bound to make some comment
on this subject.
From all we have read concerning the association of smoking and lung cancer
we are satisfied that there is an association which is cause and effect. In
other words a heavy smoker, particularly of cigarettes, is more liable to contract
cancer of the respiratory tract than the non smoker We do not say that smoking
is the only cause of cancer of the lung but it is definitely one of the causes.
Obviously in view of the fact that smoking has become a national habit it is
essential that research should be undertaken to produce a cigarette that does
not influence the growth of cancer.
In the meanwhile our advice is this Young people should be discouraged
from commencing to smoke, It must be remembered that the older schoolboy and
the young adolescent possesses no craving to smoke. He smokes because he sees
other boys and girls of his own age doing so, and primarily because he wants to
be grown up and one of the crowd Parents should explain to their children that
really and truly smoking does not make a girl or boy more grown up and they
should explain the risks inherent in smoking stating the case plainly
There is little we can say to the confirmed smoker The public already
know the situation. It would appear that to those who can afford it a cigar is
safer than cigarettes and those who cannot afford the luxury of a cigar, pipe
smoking is a lesser risk than cigarette smoking. The choice rests with the
individual. Some persons can give up smoking with relative ease and all that is
required is the desire to do so In other cases giving up smoking appears to be
almost an impossibility and even cutting down the number of cigarettes during
the day is a matter of extreme difficulty.
The question arises as to whether the desire to smoke is due to the nicotine
in the tobacco or whether it is purely and simply a question of habit. We ourselves
do not believe that the smoker is a drug addict - by which we mean there
is no similarity between the smoker and the patient who is taking either morphia
or alcohol. It is a fact that people can stop smoking without showing any of
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