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This Association claims that it exercises "Incessant vigilance through the years
in Legislative and Municipal spheres as also in the Courts where property interests
are concerned," and again, "Strenuous efforts are now being made to bring about a
change in the law to prevent further injustice to property owners," to save property
in fact that might be demolished in consequence of what the Editor of the Association
Journal terms "so-called slum clearance inquiries."
The following "Editorial Reflections" from the "Property Owners' Journal"
of October, 1937, are of interest in this connection:—
Medical Officers of Health Reports.
"Property owners, and, indeed, members of the surveying profession, will be
incensed at the views expressed by Dr. Dart, the Medical Officer of Health for
Hackney, at a recent enquiry, when he made allegations against the integrity
of Chartered Surveyors in giving evidence before so-called Slum Clearance Enquiries
. Dr. Dart seems to suggest that a qualified surveyor is quite prepared to
say anything to bolster up a case, and he has no justification for such a statement.
"In fact, I suggest to Dr. Dart that the evidence of the surveyor as to structure,
planning, ventilation, etc., is far more reliable than any evidence he can
give. Unfortunately, it has become a practice for the Medical Officer of Health
to give evidence with regard to the construction of buildings, etc., rather than
evidence as to whether any particular dwelling is healthy. It will be difficult
to find a Medical Officer of Health who has the slightest qualification for giving
evidence on this particular aspect of a so-called slum; but if he were not to give
such evidence he might just as well not appear at the enquiry at all, because
the evidence he should give, namely, as to whether the dwelling is unhealthy,
is never given, because it is almost invariably impossible to support a contention
of that kind by facts based on the health of the actual people who lived in the
houses for years past.
''It is a pity that the evidence of Medical Officers of Health is not confined
within the ambit of their own professional knowledge."
The views of the Property Owners' Protection Association staff with regard to
myself or Medical Officers of Health generally are only of interest in that they indicate
the methods of the Association. Since a shorthand note is taken of all evidence at
Inquiries in the Town Hall, it would have been of interest to turn up the evidence
referred to by the Editor in the letter I quote above, but no information was forthcoming
from the Association as to which inquiry was referred to.
I think, however, that the Editor's statement was not occasioned by any remarks
made by me at Inquiries but by those contained in my last Annual Report, where I
gave some details of the kind of evidence given at Inquiries, and in order to explain
the position I will proceed to quote from the records of evidence given at Inquiries.
It should not be thought, however, that because there is a difference in evidence given
at Inquiries that in all such cases a witness may be trying to mislead the Inquiry.
For instance, when at a fairly recent Inquiry, I gave evidence that roofs were leaky,
an expert witness of good standing gave evidence that the stains in the roofs of these
houses were merely what one might expect when roofs had leaked but that, in his
opinion, the repairs subsequently carried out must have been adequate and that the
roofs were sound. It was unfortunate from the point of view of his evidence that
his inspection had followed on a long period of dry weather and that during the night
which followed the close of the Inquiry, and before the visit of the Inspector who
had conducted the Inquiry, heavy rain occurred so that most of the roofs were found
to be leaking seriously, one tenant having collected in a bath a considerable amount
of the water which had come through his roof. My own evidence was given at the
Inquiry with some knowledge of what had been occurring in these houses in the past,
even though I lacked the expert knowledge of the owner's witness.