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Report of the County Medical Officer—General. 95
stitution, most of which, from the experience of the Council's officers, are full up soon after midnight,
and would not be likely to go to the casual ward with its accompanying restrictions at so late an hour.
In this connection it should be noted that the casual wards are now opened at six o'clock p.m. in October.
There is, therefore, little doubt, having regard to the experience of past years, that the bulk of the
people found in the streets and counted as homeless would remain there all night.
In the report on the February census brief reference was made to the Metropolis (Casual
Paupers) Order, 1911, designed to secure greater uniformity in the administration of the casual wards.
The use of four of the London wards was discontinued and the remaining twenty-four were placed under
the control of the managers of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, who were constituted the managers
of a new poor law district created by the Order, coterminous with the Asylums district. In addition
to this power was given to the Metropolitan Asylums Board" to ensure to destitute wanderers or
wayfarers the provision of food and shelter," and the Local Government Board suggested that
experience might make it possible to obtain some classification of casual paupers so as to differentiate
the occasional from the habitual vagrant.
The question of considering how this object could best be attained was already being considered
by the Metropolitan Poor Law Inspectors' Advisory Committee. This Committee includes representatives
of Government departments, the Police, and various voluntary agencies interested in the subject.
The consulting medical officer of the London County Council, Sir Shirley Murphy, is also a member.
After the transfer of the control of the casual wards an addition was made by the inclusion of the Chairman
of the Metropolitan Asylums Board and of its Casual Ward Committee. An experimental
scheme was evolved having for its object the provision of facilities for giving every homeless
person the opportunity of securing food and shelter. The Metropolitan Asylums Board was
asked to administer the scheme, which was in the first instance limited to the A division and part
of the E division of the Metropolitan Police districts. The area included was that part of London
on the north side of the River Thames bounded on the north by the Marylebone and Euston-roads, on
the east by Farringdon-road, and on the west by Park-lane, the Green-park, and Vauxhall-bridgeroad.
As described in the report on homeless persons of last February the Police in this selected
area were given, for distribution to homeless persons, tickets which had to be taken to an
office on Waterloo Pier, in charge of a casual ward superintendent with long experience of the vagrant,
and the holders of the tickets were referred by him to the casual ward or to one of the institutions of
the voluntary agencies affiliated to the scheme. Much of the voluntary work has been undertaken
by the Salvation Army and the Church Army, while the Morning Post Home and Willow-street Mission
have helped, and many other bodies expressed their willingness to co-operate if topographical difficulties
could be overcome. The first two nights after the scheme was put into operation 598 tickets
were issued by the Police, and 483 were presented at the office on Waterloo Pier. 327 tickets for
charitable institutions were issued and 263 were used. The tickets for casual wards numbered 156,
of which 73 were used. These results were surprisingly large and were probably due to curiosity, for
afterwards the numbers diminished rapidly and the tickets issued by the Police during December
varied from 16 to 110, and for the whole month averaged only 52 a night.
Since the Metropolitan Asylums Board undertook the administration of the casual wards it
has been found possible to reduce considerably the number of wards maintained. In part this is a
natural corollary of the transfer, for it was obviously impossible that some thirty different authorities
should, in making statutory provision for the casual, be able to work as economically as a single
authority dealing with London as a whole. The uniform observance of the regulations, the equalisation
of the tasks and of the dietaries, the system of transfer tickets, the keeping of a central register of
vagrants, and the linking up of the wards by telephone have also contributed in considerable measure
to the same end.
The changes here indicated have had a marked effect upon the use of the casual wards, and it
will be seen by reference to the tables following that the number of casuals accommodated on the night
of the 24th October last is the lowest yet recorded in this series of reports. It should be mentioned
that the figures relating to the casual wards on the occasion of the last two enumerations have been
supplied by the courtesy of Mr. T. Duncombe Mann, the Clerk to the Metropolitan Asylums Board.