§ I come now to the question of Public Health. There is no more important branch of the public service than that which deals with the prevention and cure of disease, the promotion of national fitness, and the well-being of the population. I think Lord Beaconsfield was one of the first statesman of front rank to realise how essential the vigorous intervention of the State in this sphere was to the greatness and strength of the country. He realised that a race enfeebled by unhealthy environment was not fit to bear much longer the burden of a great Empire like ours. We are spending upon the whole of this great service throughout the whole of the United Kingdom £25,000,000 gross, and £15,000,000 net—that is to say, £15,000,000 of money are found out of the rates for the whole of the service of public health in the United Kingdom—less than one-fifth of the cost of the Army and Navy. The national contribution towards public health, this all-important service, is something like £200,000 a year; just the cost of a third-class cruiser.
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEMy right hon. Friend tells me—[An HON. MEMBER: "Chair!"]—I was just listening to an observation made by my right hon. Friend at my side; I do hope the hon. Member will treat me with courtesy—my right hon. Friend assures me that you could not get a third-class cruiser for that sum of money. I repeat, that £200,000 is the whole contribution from the National Exchequer towards the public health of the community. The Insurance Act has done more than any number of Commissions to locate, to define, and to classify the problems of public health. I will not say it has revealed, but it has given prominence to, one very striking fact—that an immense number of men and women, through that lack of vitality and stamina which comes from unhealthy conditions and surroundings, live lives that are a prolonged struggle against debility and disease. There is no more fertile propagator of the seeds of inefficiency and disease, of squalor and misery. How is the State affected? The State is vitally interested in the problem. There is no waste of national resources 76 which is comparable to this state of things. Preventible disease is the costliest of all extravagances. Much of it is due to low wages; men and women are not equipped with the necessary means to nurture themselves and their families and to provide decent accommodation. Much may be due to their own faults and weaknesses. But there is a great margin which is due to other causes with which I am dealing to-day, causes which are entrusted to the supervision, care, and control of the local authorities. Take the unhealthy and overcrowded dwellings which are such a prolific source of depressed vitality. Take the absence of sufficient provision for the cure of disease in its initial stages. Take the absence of any systematic instruction in the principles of health; the lack of supervision and nurture in the upbringing of children. I have already dwelt upon the great difficulty in regard to the slums. There are 5,000,000 of people in this country living in slum areas, and slum areas by no means cover the whole of the population that dwell in insanitary and unfit houses.