Sir Francis Fremantle: Is it not possible for the Army to accommodate their troops under canvas in order to release these houses for the very much needed occupation of civil workers?
Sir Francis Fremantle: What action do you propose to take, Mr. Speaker, on the Special Report of the Select Committee on Publications and Debates Reports recommending that the word "Hansard" be printed on the front of the Parliamentary Debates Official Report?
Sir Francis Fremantle: asked the Minister of Health whether the promised system of allowances for cases of tuberculosis undergoing remedial treatment is now in force; what steps he is taking to make it known to medical practitioners in general; and whether he will issue a full statement amplifying his Circular 266/T in detail?
Sir Francis Fremantle: Is my right hon. Friend aware that medical practitioners often do not see these circulars, although it is upon them that the determination of these cases will rest, as well as upon district nurses and health visitors? Is it not necessary that these people should know these conditions, in order to be able to ferret out the cases?
Sir Francis Fremantle: The last part of my Question asked about details. Is my right hon. Friend aware that at a meeting lately of county medical officers, the people most likely to know, it was clear that in a very large number of cases there were inquiries about details and the Memorandum certainly did not provide for them?
Sir Francis Fremantle: Is my right hon. Friend aware that a letter addressed to a man who had been six months in a hospital in Cairo was returned "Address unknown," although only a week after it arrived there he had gone to Pietermaritzburg?
Sir Francis Fremantle: It was quick work, was it not? That was on 8th June.
Sir Francis Fremantle: I agree with the hon. Lady who has just spoken that the present Debate must depend very largely upon the position of 90 per cent. of the people and not the 10 per cent. of the so-called upper or more fortunate classes. It is from that point of view that she and I as members of the medical profession can be trusted to look at the question, and to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing...
Sir Francis Fremantle: No; but that you would have had only one-tenth or one-fifth of your present leaders and men and women of genius.
Sir Francis Fremantle: The idea should be to encourage families of four and five. Then we should have had Lord Randolph Churchill and the present Prime Minister. That would be better than families of two or one or no children. Elie Bois in his book, "The Truth of the tragedy of France" explains it when he says the men were no longer there; France had no longer men like Poincairé, Briand and Ciemenceau. Our...
Sir Francis Fremantle: No, it raised its power in every way. Historians all agree upon the causes of the fall of Rome. I would refer my hon. Friend to Sir John Seely. When a nation gradually gets into a position that she is developing from a material standpoint, she naturally falls into the trap of material luxury. The rest follows. If you are dealing with children from a purely material standpoint, they are...
Sir Francis Fremantle: I meant, of course, the sale of contraceptives. I withdraw any reflection I may have made on any one political party. I think we must try to find the remedy mainly in public opinion. It is public opinion that can recognise the need and deal with it. Families have to be based on the natural laws of reproduction and on ideas of Christianity. There is an ideal, which is the ideal of classical...
Sir Francis Fremantle: I know the hon. Lady can. The hon. Member for West Nottingham (Mr. Hayday), who used always to speak of it with pride—and rightly so—has a family of at least 14 children. Lastly, I hope that in addition to this inquiry we shall urge the Dominions and the United States to consider this problem now with a view to the post-war world.
Sir Francis Fremantle: I did not sneer.
Sir Francis Fremantle: We will tell you.
Sir Francis Fremantle: Surely the high birthrate was not at all abnormal. It was regular. The reason for the surge was not a surge of fertility; it was a surge due to improvement of public health.
Sir Francis Fremantle: Will this Committee be working in co-operation with the sub-committee—of which I am a member—of the Ministry of Health which is dealing with exactly the same problem?
Sir Francis Fremantle: If that is so, will my right hon. Friend see that batteries are available for all types of instruments, because hitherto only some of the more expensive ones seem to have been dealt with?
Sir Francis Fremantle: Is my hon. Friend arguing that a law should be interpreted in the spirit and not in the letter of the law, and that the law should be changed accordingly?
Sir Francis Fremantle: asked the Secretary of State for War why the same prospect of advance to commissioned rank given to nurses and to physiotherapists in overseas Forces is refused to women specially trained as masseuses and to other physiotherapists; and whether he will receive a deputation from the chartered society on the subject?
