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To the Board of Works for the Whitechapel District.
Report of the Committee appointed to consider certain charges lately
made by the Members of the Sanitary Committee of the Board
of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor, with reference
to Sanitary defects stated to exist within the Whitechapel
District.
Gentlemen,
The communication addressed to your Board, signed by Mr.CoHEN,
[the Chairman] and other members of the Sanitary Committee of the
Board of Guardians, for the relief of the Jewish Poor, referred to your
Committee for consideration and report has been carefully considered
by your Committee; and Sub-committees have been appointed to
inspect, and have inspected, various houses included in a supplemental
letter sent by Mr. Schloss, the Hon. Secretary of the Committee
of the Jewish Guardians, and the whole of the houses referred to in
such supplemental letter have been inspected by your Medical
Officer of Health.
It may be premised that during the past year considerable interest
with regard to the condition of the dwellings of the poor has been
awakened, and an intelligent work for good has started into
existence, under the designation of the Mansion House Council, on the
dwellings of the poor. A local representation of that body has been
established in this District, under the auspices of Mr. Bolton King, and
your Committee believe that the Sanitary Committee of the Jewish
Board of Guardians have been identified with the Council, or, at any
rate, working upon the same lines in the interest of the poor of this
District.
Your Committee believe that much good has resulted from the
voluntary system that has been adopted, and by these bodies
employing Inspectors, or by members of these bodies volunteering
as Inspectors, to visit the habitations of the poor, and that much
more good (if the practice be persisted in) will result in the future,
when what may be termed the enthusiasm of the commencement of
the enquiry has toned down to sober work. By this voluntary
movement your Committee believe that the whole of the Whitechapel
District has undergone most searching and complete investigation,
and with a minuteness that reflects the greatest credit upon the zeal
of those engaged in the enquiry.
It will be remembered by the Board that Mr. Schloss, the Hon.
Secretary of the Sanitary Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians,