BETTER HEALTH

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21247, 18 October 1940, Page 6

BETTER HEALTH

CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN REVIEW BY MINISTER FALL IN DEATH=RATE (OfTlcial Wireless) (Received Oct. 18. 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Oct. 17 A heartening survey of the health of Britain was given in the House of Commons by Mr Malcolm MacDonald, Minister of Health, who stated that in the disturbing situation in 1939, which included eight months of uneasy peace and four months of war, the health of the nation had been uniformly good. During the year the number of children in England and Wales who died before their first birthday was 50 per 1000, the lowest figure ever recorded. The same could be said of the maternity mortality rate, which had fallen to 2.82 per 1000 births. The death-rate from all forms of tuberculosis, 636 per million, was one per million higher than in 1938 but less than half the figure in 1914.

“The worst visitation of 1939 was the outbreak of war,” said Mr MacDonald. “At its very beginning it threw a new kind of strain upon our health services, which they successfully withstood and which showed their adaptability to circumstances. The evacuation of 730,000 children and 420,000 mothers from the industrial cities of Britain was a large immigration of people from populous areas where the necessary special medical services were located. “Our present trials in this muchbombed city and throughout the rest of the country are not the prelude to defeat. They are all not the death of Britain, but the rather unpleasant, terrible but hopeful birth pangs of the new Britain. “The sojourn of London and other city children under the evacuation schemes in the country has had a most stimulating effect on their physical well-being. The fresh air has made them taller, heavier and more resistant to illness. We must see to it after the war that our town and city children have ample opportunities every year to go and draw fresh draughts of health and life from the lovely countryside of England.” Strain of Air Raids Dealing with the strain of the heavy German raids in recent weeks, Mr MacDonald said: “Stretcher parties, first-aid units, ambulance teams, hospital orderlies, nurses and doctors have performed their task, often under fire, with inexpressible coolness and skill. We know now, what we expected before, that they will be equal to any work, however difficult or dangerous, that is thrust upon them. As is well-known, the numbers of casualties are slight in comparison with the strenuous and wanton efforts which the German airmen are making. At this moment some 550 beds in wards are filled by air raid casualties. “It would be a mistake to feel too much assurance from the fact. It would be foolish to assume that we shall not suffer worse before the enemy is finally beaten back from London to Kent, and from Kent across the Channel, and from the Channel over Europe, until he is smashed on the soil of Germany herself.”

Dealing with the problem of large number of people spending the nights in shelters for protection against enemy air attacks, a problem which looms out in the winter darkness just ahead, Mr MacDonald said: “Already some 489,000 school children, about 56 per cent, of the whole school children population in the London evacuation areas, have left. At present mothers and children are leaving London at the rate of several thousands daily, while every few days now we are taking some hundreds of aged and infirm people, who are amongst the most difficult problems in the shelters, to be cared for in hospitals and homes found for them in the country. Will be Able to Sleep “It is of supreme importance that night dwellers in shelters should be able to lie down in comfort and sleep the sleep of the just. That state of affairs will be achieved in the very near future, when bunks have been set up. A healthy standard of sanitary equipment is being provided. The medical officer of health in each borough is being made responsible for seeing that a frequent inspection of each public shelter is made. In each shelter holding more than 500 people there will 'be a first-aid post, equipment and ample supplies. Great Spirit of People “In these testing days and nights the common people of Britain are demonstrating once more their very fine qualities. They are showing again that they deserve the best out of life that organised human society can give, and we must certainly do all in our power to see that the care for their health is such that they shall possess the physical strength not only to outlast and defeat the Nazi enemy but to overcome successfully the civilian problems which they will have to face when peace is declared.” HUGE WAR ORDERS EXPENDITURE BY CANADA (United Press Assn.—Elee. Tel. Copyright, OTTAWA, Oct. 16 Canada has placed orders for war materials to the value of 550,000,000 dollars. Eighty-six per cent has been placed in Canada, nine per cent in the United Kingdom, and five per cent in the United States.