39. Mr. THOMSONasked the Minister of Health if he was correctly reported in the public Press of the 28th instant as stating that the policy of the Government was that, until private enterprise could build workmen's houses to be let at an economic rent, married people and their families must be content to live in one room, and that newly-married couples must follow the custom of the Chinese and other Eastern nations and continue to live with their parents until such times as unaided private enterprise could provide them with homes of their own?
§ Sir A. MONDI did not make the statement contained in the question, nor am I aware that I was ever reported in any paper as making it. In the course of a long interview with a representative of what I have previously regarded as a responsible journal, I humorously ventured the remark that newly-married people would be so happy that they could enjoy living even in two rooms, and some conversation took place as to whether the practice of newly-married people living separately is not comparatively modern, and as to the custom in the older civilisations of the East. I am much surprised that the hon. Member should apparently regard these observations as a serious statement of policy, which, as I should have thought, would have been obvious to any intelligent reader of the interview were not to be regarded in such a manner.
Mr. THOMSONDoes the right hon. Gentleman consider that the tragedy of the homeless is a suitable subject for humour on the part of a Minister?
§ Sir A. MONDCertainly not, and I did not make it a subject of humour. Per- 2225 haps I was over-optimistic as to the effect of marriage on the newly-married, in view of the position in regard to houses at the time.