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11
Once billeted in households the refugees would have become
ordinary members of the population who, if they needed medical
attention which they could not otherwise obtain, would receive
it under the County Council's District Medical Officer service.
As events turned out, we were asked to receive only relatively small
numbers of refugees, numbers small enough to be dealt with by
arranging for them to be passed direct to their billets. Very
shortly after the reception of these this area was declared
a protected area so that aliens were no longer permitted here, and
all the arrangements fell through. Apart from the small numbers
of persons who found their way as individuals or as families into this
district when those living within the vicinity of certain possible
targets were advised to leave their homes and find other accommodation,
the next occasion on which it was considered likely that
any large numbers of persons would have to be received here was
in the early summer when it seemed that mass migration of the
population from certain coastal areas was imminent. On this
occasion, as contrasted with the arrangements for the billeting
of the refugees it seemed that any necessary action was the
responsibility of the local authority and not this time of the
County Council. Guidance on the steps to be taken was contained
in a memorandum from a government department but this did
not really help to clear up points of difficulty which it was anticipated
might arise, particularly in the matter of disposal of selected
persons such as pregnant mothers, the verminous, patients needing
hospital treatment, or patients ill of some infectious condition for
which hospital accommodation is not ordinarily available. With
their hospital services the County Council were in a better position
to deal with such patients. As the people were to be admitted to
private houses and particularly as billeting was to be compulsory
it was desirable that the householders should be as far as practicable
protected from the risk of having to receive anyone suffering from
an infectious or contagious condition. Medical examination was
the obvious suggestion of ensuring this and as it was not possible
to arrange for the medical inspection at the entraining end, the
memorandum suggested such examination as may be possible at
the receiving centres in order to segregate any persons suffering
from infectious diseases or those in a verminous condition. It
was not considered that the public health problems involved in
the entry to the district of a few thousands of persons who had only
a few hours before left their own homes would be of any magnitude.
It was also felt unreasonable to subject these persons to any
thorough medical examination, even though it had been considered
that any advantage would follow such a practice. The arrangements
actually to be put into force then included the provision of
nurses (the Council's health visitors) and a doctor (one of the
general medical practitioners living in the vicinity) at the station
at which detraining was taking place. The persons would file