View report page

PREFACE.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Merton and Morden Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present the Annual Report for the
year 1939.
I must apologise for the late appearance of this Report,
the earlier publication of which was found to be impracticable
as a result of the declaration of War on the 3rd September,
and the consequent diverting of the duties of practically the
whole of the staff of the department to the war effort. In addition
the Registrar General's statistics for the year were received
much later than is usual.
I have, despite considerable difficulty, endeavoured to
present the Report in much the same form as in previous years,
both as a volume of reference and as an annual review of the
work of the department.
Although it falls to me to present this Report to you, it will
be appreciated that the work it reviews was carried out under
the direction of my predecessor, Dr. F. Lawrence Smith, who
left Merton and Morden in March, 1940, to take up an appointment
with the Carshalton Urban District Council. I should
like to claim your indulgence for taking this opportunity of
putting on record my appreciation and sincere thanks for the
very willing assistance and guidance he afforded me at the time
I assumed my position at Merton and Morden.
With regard to Air Raid Precautions, the Casualty Services
were organised and completed in accordance with the directions
given in the various Circulars and Memoranda from the
Government Departments, London Civil Defence Region and
the Scheme-making Authority.
The year under review, despite the outbreak of the War,
was a particularly favourable one from the health point of view.
All vital statistics reflect the improvement and compare very
favourably with those of previous years and for the country as
a whole.
It is the practice for Medical Officers of Health to use the
Annual Report as a vehicle for drawing attention to, or emphasising
some important current feature of preventive medicine
or public health. The curtailment of the body of this Report
2