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9
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the
Borough of Bromley.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
My first prefatory letter will perforce be short as it refers to a
period prior to my becoming your Medical Officer of Health. As,
of course, is well known, Dr. Tapper retired early in 1955 after
long years of meritorious service, and many eulogistic references
have been made to him by others capable of far finer phraseology
than anything to which 1 could hope to aspire. Nevertheless, 1
should like to pay my small tribute to the tremendous energy,
drive and enthusiasm with which he always undertook his work,
and to the inspiration which was the mainspring of many of the
Public Health services of which the local authority can be justly
proud.
I shall now endeavour to survey briefly some of the more
outstanding features of the year. Firstly, 1 would refer to the
abolition of food rationing which had for so long become a part
of our daily lives that a generation was beginning to grow up
which had never experienced what life was like without a ration
book. This relief was. I believe, very welcome to the vast majority,
but it does raise an educational problem in that the public must
now be kept informed of the best way of spending the money that
is available to them for purchasing food. In the days of rationing,
a balanced diet was assured to all who took up their rations to the
full, even if at times that diet may have appeared somewhat dull.
This leads me naturally to the subject of health education in
general, and here the department has not been lax, for in addition
to the routine day by day work of the sanitary inspectors in
encouraging personal cleanliness and clean food handling, a
number of talks have been given to various organisations in the
town on matters of public health interest and on these occasions
the opportunity for putting over our ideas on cleanliness of food
and person, has not been lost. A great field of work undoubtedly
lies before us in this direction, and one hopes that we shall be given
the opportunity of extending this service in the future.
Another activity of the local authority to which I should like
to refer is the anti-litter campaign which, although it is not being
conducted by the Health Committee, is indirectly of considerable
importance to its general duty of promoting the health and welfare
of the population. If only the desire for general cleanliness and
tidiness can be inculcated into all of us in our use of the highway.