HL Deb 29 June 1937 vol 105 cc871-94

Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (EARL STANHOPE)

My Lords, I think you will agree that the demand for increased opportunities for physical training and fitness, particularly amongst the younger generation, is one of the most striking phenomena of the present day. How far this is due to the scantier but more healthy clothing which is now the fashion, particularly amongst the other sex, I am not prepared to say, but I think you will agree that the clothing of the present day, especially among hikers and others, makes any physical idiosyncrasy far more obvious to ordinary persons than it was. Rather do I base the demand for physical training and fitness on the results of national education. For many years we have been improving physical training in schools, and whereas in the old days only some two hours a week were given for playground exercises and gymnastic activities, at the present time it is not uncommon in elementary schools that a period of physical activity should be provided for every day. That is more true, I am afraid, in our elementary schools than in our secondary schools, and it is only true to a wide extent where reorganisation has already taken place. Nevertheless, throughout the schools as a whole physical training has been very much improved as compared with old days. Since the War we have been pressing for a wider and more varied syllabus of physical training, to include an adequate daily period of exercise, organised games, wherever possible, swimming instruction, and gymnastics for older boys and girls. The result of that has been that children have left school with a desire for physical exercise. That desire has spread among the younger generation and they have now, I am glad to say, infected a great many of their elders.

Your Lordships debated the question of national physique last winter on November 10, and the noble Lord opposite, Lord Dawson of Penn, on that occasion remarked that we should distinguish between physical education and physical recreation. Well, I want both. I want the physical education given in schools compulsorily, and I want that given in such a way that it will become a hobby and a physical recreation to children when they leave school and in their later years. Of course the difficulty is, as Lord Milne said in the same debate, that "many of the people in this country who are in close contact with the young men and the young women after they leave school feel that what they have gained in school they lose once they leave school. The reason of that is that there are no facilities at all for the youth of the nation to carry out physical exercises. They are lacking in all opportunities for physical development." It is to meet that need that the Government have produced this Bill.

Before I deal with the clauses, I should like to mention a few general principles or which the Government scheme rests. The first, and perhaps the most important, is that the scheme is entirely voluntary. There were some noble Lords in the last debate who rather urged the Government to impose a compulsory scheme such as is in being in several Continental countries, but, as I think my noble friend the Lord Privy Seal pointed out in that debate, there are other countries in Europe which have made a great success of physical training, and which do the whole thing on a voluntary basis, such as Sweden and Czechoslovakia. I think there is no question about the advantages of the voluntary system in the mind of anybody in your Lordships' House except possibly the noble and gallant Earl, Lord Cork, who at one time had a Motion on the Paper for the rejection of this Bill. I understand that his motive for the rejection was that the Bill did not go far enough, and I think he possibly wanted a measure of compulsion, though I am not quite clear as to that. But with that possible exception I think your Lordships will agree that at any rate in this country it is essential that we should stick closely to the voluntary principle, for the simple reason that an Englishman is a fairly easy person to lead, but he is an impossible person to drive.

The second general principle is that the scheme is based on existing organisations. It is not proposed to build up an entirely new organisation to supplant and eradicate all those in existence. The reasons for that are two. In the first place there is no idea of setting up one new and uniform system. The Government feel that many parts of the country, differing so much as they do from each other, require different systems and different methods, and the town and the country also may have to be treated in different ways. Secondly, they feel that, with the number and value of the voluntary organisations already in existence in this country, it would obviously be extremely foolish not to make use of those voluntary organisations. There are, for instance, boys' and girls' clubs, which have been in existence for many years, the polytechnics, which appeal to my noble friend the Lord Chancellor in both a personal and an hereditary aspect, the Y.M.C.A.s and the Y.W.C.A.s, Scouts, Guides, and many other organisations. The object of the scheme is to mobilise voluntary effort and to join it with the extremely valuable work which is already being done throughout the country by local authorities. Now the tradition of the best voluntary organisations is not that the training should be purely physical. They have also aimed at training minds, and their objective has been a healthy mind in a healthy body. That fits in with the aim which has been constantly before the Board of Education for many years, that a child should be made fit mentally, physically and socially for the life which lies in front of it.

The third principle which I should like to emphasise is that the scheme is in no sense military. It has been represented in various quarters that because this scheme came in at the same time as the Government rearmament scheme therefore they were linked together and this was a method of obtaining recruits for the Army and the other two Services and getting them physically fit to pass the doctor and to pass into the Services. In fact, I have seen it stated in some organs of the Press that the sole reason why I was appointed to the Board of Education was that I happened to have served some time in the Army, and therefore I was put in to militarise the whole physical education of the country. I admit that it is hard sometimes to see ourselves as others see us, but I have never been able yet to visualise myself as a very rubicund Colonel Blimp giving physical training to, I suppose, a squad of elderly spinsters and maiden aunts. Although there is no mention of a drill hall in the Bill, there is a mention of gymnasia, and that has caused one member of your Lordships' House who is so intimately acquainted with youth organisations, Lord Baden Powell, to say that he thinks there is too much emphasis on the gymnasium and gymnastic training, and not enough on outdoor exercise. If your Lordships examine Clause 3 of the Bill or the White Paper you will see that there is just as much insistence on playing fields, holiday camps and camping sites as there is on gymnasia.

We have to remember that in this country, being so largely urbanised as it is, it is very difficult to provide open spaces where games can readily be played, and it is difficult for those who work in great cities such as this to find the time to get away when their work is over to play games except at the week-ends. Therefore very often a good deal of their physical training has to be done in gymnasia. Particularly is that true during the winter months. There is, of course, a further reason why we should rather emphasise gymnasia. In foreign countries they have always started with gymnasia and gymnastic clubs, and it is only comparatively recently that they have taken to games and outdoor sports. We in this country have started at the opposite end. We have started with games and sports, and it is only recently that we have realised the value of gymnastic training. We have begun to discover, possibly as the result of our not getting as many successes as we had hoped in the Olympic Games and other contests, that gymnastic training and outdoor exercise necessarily go together to get the perfect athlete. I think now there is no question that any professional footballer would at once say he would have very little chance in a Football Cup tie if he had not gone into strict physical training as well.

Of course, it is possible to become very fit by gymnastic training alone or even by home training. I think probably a good many of your Lordships do a certain amount of physical exercise in the morning. I do on a rowing machine, but I am bound to admit, and I think every one of your Lordships will admit, that it is extremely dull, and we shall never make a real success of a national system which confines itself solely to gymnastic training and physical jerks. Therefore we want to make it the more attractive by joining it up with outdoor sports and outdoor games, which by themselves do not make a man completely and absolutely as fit as he could be made, but which, joined with the gymnastic training, make an attractive hobby and recreation for people and, we believe, will be of real value to the health of the country. I hope I shall not be criticised for putting forward the views of a "wet bob" when I say I agree entirely with the remark in a recent article in The Times that "the ball, while it is in Britain the physical educationist's best servant, is surely his worst master."

If I may turn very briefly to the Bill itself, Clauses 1 and 2 give statutory recognition to the National Advisory Council and to the Grants Committee and provide for the establishment of local committees. There are two National Advisory Councils, one for England and Wales and one for Scotland. That for England and Wales consists of thirty-one members under the Chairmanship of my noble friend Lord Aberdare, and your Lordships will agree that my predecessor was extremely fortunate in having got such a Chairman to preside over this Council. I do not know how many times my noble friend has been champion of tennis and rackets, but if the whole youth and adolescence of this country try to follow his example in sport and games we shall certainly not go far wrong. In Scotland the Chairman is Sir Iain Colquhoun, also a person extremely well known in the North and one who should attract a great following in the propaganda and enthusiasm which we hope to arouse in that part of the country. The Grants Committee in England is presided over by Sir Henry Pelham and in Scotland by Mr. D. A. Anderson. Both the National Advisory Councils and the Grants Committees were set up on March 1. They have been working very hard since and have made considerable progress in planning the arrangements which will be necessary as soon as this Bill passes into law.

Arrangements have been made for setting up regional committees, of which there will be twenty-two in England and Wales and five in Scotland. In both countries it is almost certain that the regional committees will require a number of sub-committees to go over the area and comb it properly, because their duties are very wide. They have to review the facilities in their areas, they have to organise public interest, and they have to examine applications for grants. What normally will happen is that the locality will put up an application for a grant, possibly for a playing field or a swimming bath or a social club. That application is examined by the local committee, who pass it on with their recommendation for or against, and how far other claims are perhaps greater, to the Grants Committee. It is considered by the Grants Committee, and then it comes up before the Board of Education who make the grant or otherwise according to the advice which is given to them by the Grants Committee.

Clause 3 empowers the Board of Education, on the recommendation of the Grants Committee, to pay these grants for new and enlarged facilities for physical training and recreation. The local authority is joined in with the voluntary organisations in each area. The whole scheme is based on a very close co-operation between the local authority and the voluntary organisations, so that they may work together and that there may be no overlapping at all Grants are made for capital expenditure only, because we feel that if there is any real desire for new opportunities for physical training there should be sufficient enthusiasm in the district to be able to raise sufficient money and effort to maintain the facility once it has been granted; but in exceptional cases where there is any difficulty, because the area may be hard hit financially, or may have a great deal of unemployment, then it is possible that a grant may be made for maintenance also.

The Board of Education has power to make grants for other purposes—firstly, for the training and supply of teachers and leaders for this movement. Your Lordships will, of course, agree that the whole success of the movement depends, as it does in so many other organisations such as the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides, on our getting efficient leaders and instructors. I shall have something to say presently of the National College which it is proposed to set up, but for the time being, until such College comes into existence, we propose to make full use of the experience and organisation of the Central Council of Recreative Physical Training. We also hope that the local authorities, and particularly the local education authorities, will co-operate fully in supplying teachers, of whom already a number are trained to enable physical training to be given not only in their own institutions, schools and so on, but also in those provided by voluntary associations as well. The Board of Education may also make grants towards the funds of national organisations for particular purposes. We visualise that some of these national organisations may require organisers locally, and therefore we propose to take powers, if your Lordships approve of this Bill, to meet part or the whole of the cost of the salaries of such organisers where we feel that to be necessary. Clauses 4 and 5 extend and simplify the powers of local authorities.

It is natural that in the notice taken in the Press and elsewhere of the White Paper published earlier in the year, and in the discussion that has taken place in another place, a good deal of emphasis has been laid on the work of voluntary organisations. But that does not mean that the Government do not value very highly indeed the work which has been done for a number of years by the local authorities. Indeed this scheme cannot realty succeed unless the local authorities throw themselves into it heart and soul.

Both from their statutory position and from their funds, and in many cases from their own experience, the help they can give to this scheme is of incalculable value.

In Clause 7 power is taken to set up one or more National Colleges, and the Board is empowered to provide, to maintain, and to aid them as it thinks fit. The object of the National College is to train and equip an adequate supply of teachers, carry on research work, arrange demonstrations, and also, if necessary, to help in training instructors for school work. The scheme as regards the National College has not yet been thoroughly worked out, but it is almost certain that at least one College will have to be set up in the very near future.

Clause 10 applies the Bill to Scotland. The remaining clauses to which I have not referred are mostly to bring in the financial provisions of the Bill and so on, and I need not go into them at this stage. Your Lordships may wish to know the estimated cost of this proposal. It is difficult to make a close estimate, but it is proposed that £2,000,000 sterling should be spent on capital expenditure over a period of three years, while the cost of maintenance will be about £150,000 a year. That is apart from the cost in Scotland.

His Majesty's Government believe that this Bill fills a very widely felt want. The knowledge of the value of physical training and physical culture is growing very rapidly throughout the country, and people really need greater facilities than they have at present. On the other hand, we realise that even now that knowledge is nothing like so widespread as it should be. There is still a very large number of people, including, I am afraid, those who sometimes are responsible for the better known public schools of the country, who have not yet realised the value of physical training. Some schools are renowned for producing boys who, perhaps because of their practice of walking about with their hands in their pockets as the school custom is, have round shoulders for the rest of their lives; and that does not apply to the elementary schools but to some of the best known public schools of the country. Therefore we feel that, even though in many cases the value of this training is appreciated, a good deal has yet to be done to make it more widely known, and even where it is widely known to let people understand what we think is the best method of providing physical fitness and where facilities exist in their own areas to obtain it. Therefore power is taken under subsection (3) of Clause 3 for the Board of Education, in consultation with the National Advisory Council and on the recommendation of the Grants Committee, to spend money on publicity and propaganda.

We shall not achieve even with these methods any real success in this scheme unless we can bring it down to the individual by personal interview and by personal influence. That is where I should like to appeal to members of your Lordships' House, and particularly, if I may, to those who at times appear here but unfortunately are not present here to-day. I have been a member of this House many years and remember when the attendance was very much greater. It has been reduced, I think, mainly for two reasons. One is that many of your Lordships find it impossible to maintain a house in London and one in the country in these days when taxation is very heavy, and the other is that, unfortunately, our debates are perhaps more one-sided than they have been in previous years, so that many noble Lords feel they can exercise more influence for good by remaining in their country districts and taking part in local government than they can by attending your Lordships' House. That means that their influence in their own districts is very material indeed. I hope that many noble Lords who read this debate may feel that here they have a real opportunity of using that influence to the full by making this scheme known throughout their own areas, by making it known in the small towns, in the villages and even in the cottages, by seeing that every individual is made to realise how much benefit can be achieved by doing more physical training and more physical fitness exercises than he has ever done before, and insisting that his children also shall follow on the same lines.

It is only so, I think, that we shall obtain that increase in happiness which so many of us realise depends primarily on good health, and that we shall be enabled to improve the country in the region of health, fitness and happiness. Therefore, believing that this Bill does afford very much greater opportunities than have ever been provided for the public in the past, I have every confidence in asking your Lordships to give it a very favourable passage through this House and not less support than it received in another place. I beg to move that the Bill be now read a second time.

Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Earl Stanhope.)

LORD STRABOLGI

My Lords, my noble friends have authorised me to offer no opposition to this Bill; in fact to welcome it, and I do so with very great pleasure. And also, with very great pleasure, may I congratulate the noble Earl not only on his presentation of the Bill but upon his assumption of the high office of Minister of Education? When this movement for physical culture started I had the impression that the Ministry of Health were going to be responsible, but I gather now that it is to be the responsibility of the Board of Education. That being the case, and knowing the noble Earl as we do, I think your Lordships will agree with me when I say that we could not have—with the necessity of having this Government in office at all—a better representative at the Ministry of Education than the noble Earl.

May I also very humbly support what he said in his tribute to my noble friend Lord Aberdare, and venture to agree with him in the good fortune that the nation and the Administration have had in securing his services as Chairman of the Advisory Council? He is himself a very good example of what happens to a man who keeps himself fit and keeps up his sports and recreations. I have felt for a very long time, and I have voiced it in public, that we ought to have a separate Ministry in this country for the whole range of sport and physical culture and everything in connection with that side of human activities. I believe it is of tremendous importance nowadays. With more and more people living in great cities, something of that kind is absolutely necessary. Sport is also of tremendous importance in present-day civilisation. I used to advocate that we should have a separate Under-Secretary of State for sport and physical culture. Well, I am not sure that this system may not be better if the President of the Board of Education can really take the matter under his wing and push it forward and help it.

I have two observations of a slightly critical nature to make, but not in connection with what is in the Bill. I have to take the opportunity of drawing attention to two other factors closely connected with the subject we are now discussing. The first is this. There is a welcome and splendid movement in the country, which the noble Earl I am sure would wish to encourage in every way, for people to get more and more out into the open country. Hiking, scouting, rock-climbing and mountaineering are all very splendid, and the people indulging in them have found that they are wonderful things, yet too much of the wilder part of this country is shut off from the general public. Bills have been introduced into both Houses of Parliament again and again to give access to the uncultivated parts of the country—the moorlands, mountains and so on—and they have always been rejected. I really think it is time the Government took the matter in hand. I will take only one example, the Pennines, which are almost a gift of the Almighty to the industrial regions of Northern England. A great part of the Pennines is forbidden to the people in the crowded cities and coalfields round about them.

A second observation I have to make on behalf of my Party, and this was discussed at a meeting of our Party Executive. It is that we can spend money upon, and organise, encourage and stimulate, physical culture, physical exercises and recreation as much as we like, but that if we have a large section of the people under-nourished or suffering from malnutrition, all that will be wasted. If I may put it colloquially, we say that wholesome and sufficient food is more important for a large section of poor people to-day than physical jerks. At the present time there is a large section of the population who definitely do not get sufficient food of the right quality to keep them in proper health. That, we say, is a scandal and a disgrace, because we have all the means of producing all the foodstuffs required in overwhelming abundance. It is a fatal flaw in the present economic and capitalist system, and it is because we recognise this flaw that we exist as a separate Party to try to remove it. I have to make that protest at the unnecessary malnutrition that is suffered by many people of this country; and, of course, the most disgraceful case of all is that of the young children. I admit that the Government have done a good deal in making milk more freely available, but they ought to do a great deal more.

I am now going to deal with a matter which the noble Earl very cleverly evaded, and that is the importance of physical fitness in national defence. We recognise that on this side. We are not afraid of saying that part of our national defence must be a strong, virile population. If you want an Army, you may as well see that the recruits are strong and healthy. The fact that the noble Earl had a distinguished military career does not prejudice him in my eyes as Minister of Education. From that point of view alone I should have thought that he present Government, which is spending £2,000,000,000 on armaments—which we do not challenge as a policy—ought at least to see that young people have enough to eat so that they may be strong enough to bear arms, which is not the case at present in very large areas of the country.

I have had to make those two very critical observations on the Bill, and now I am going to make a constructive suggestion which I hope will interest the noble Earl. There is a very welcome growth in this country of what are called holiday camps. The noble Earl may have noticed them when moving about the country in seaside districts and other places. They are well fitted hutment camps, at which families and parties of friends can rent accommodation very reasonably, and they have all kinds of sporting facilities. There could be many more of them, and I think they would be worth subsidising, if they were in certain chosen areas, for this purpose. If you had more of these camps in certain suitable places, they would be very valuable in case of war, as mobilisation centres for the Territorial Army and other units. I think it would be worth while subsidising certain of these camps in conjunction with the War Office. I can make this suggestion because the noble Earl is a little diffident, but I am not afraid, of being accused of militarism. I think it is worth serious consideration. I hope that the whole scheme in the Bill will be most successful, and that the noble Earl and Lord Aberdare and others who will do the spade-work will be able to achieve a great step forward for the health and happiness of the people.

VISCOUNT BLEDISLOE

My Lords, I warmly welcome this Bill, and there are two observations I should like to make in doing so. In the first place I am inclined to think that familiarity, besides breeding contempt, breeds complacency with existing conditions. I make that observation after five years' residence at the other end of the Empire, in New Zealand. Upon coming back here I discovered two factors which I am bound to say caused me a considerable shock. One of them—I have referred to it before in your Lordships' House—was the relative neglect of our land, and the other was the relative neglect of national physique in this old country of ours. I cannot help thinking that any one who goes with his eyes open to other parts of the world will discover that our national physique is not improving pari passu with that of several other countries, some of them fortunately comprised in the British Empire, but some of which, in days to come, may be potential enemies.

The other reason why I welcome the Bill—and I say it as President of the National Council of Social Service—is that it definitely combines Government action with voluntary organisation. I have had the opportunity, during the last two years, of seeing some quite admirable work in every sphere of social activity, including physical training and welfare in different parts of this country, and notably in what are known as the Special or Distressed Areas. I really cannot speak with sufficient admiration of the selfless work that is being conducted by numerous voluntary organisations, particularly in those unhappy areas, for the social advancement and physical development of those who are out of work or are dependants of unemployed persons, notably those connected with what are called occupational centres.

I notice that the noble Earl, in introducing this Bill, referred to the local authorities and the powers that they will have in future to obtain from the Government, I think through the Board of Education, certain grants for the purposes of this Bill. But he did not, I think, refer specifically to the local voluntary organisations which, for this purpose, are linked with the local authorities. May I say how very glad I am to find that there is that link, and that there is special provision made in Clause 3 (1) (c) for grants being made to any national voluntary organisation having such objects as are stated in the Bill. I am perfectly conscious that one of the organisations must be that over which I have the honour to preside—namely, the National Council of Social Service. Therefore I want to express my special gratification at what I am sure will be the immense stimulus to the work which is rapidly developing with important ramifications of social value all over the country, but which has insufficient means to respond to the appeals constantly made by voluntary organisations carrying on unselfish work to the limit of their own financial resources.

There is one little matter to which perhaps I may be allowed to refer, and that is the tendency of some local authorities under the provisions of such a Bill as this to develop what I may call a somewhat one-sided programme of social, physical or health improvement to the displacement of other activities which are not less worthy of encouragement. I want to refer in this connection very specially to cottage gardens and allotments which are growing up in many arias, and which are of immense value to the older men in industrial districts who find themselves out of employment. In every area near an industrial town there is no doubt whatever that you have a large and important measure of health, and incidentally a greater adaptability, developing amongst those who have allotments and cottage gardens generously and amply provided with the help of the local authorities. In all the areas where there is serious unemployment, which it has been my experience to visit—I visited one only a fortnight ago in the colliery area of Nottinghamshire—where there are allotments provided, there is an element of hope. Not only is there an element of hope, but what we call the hard core of unemployment is not so obviously distressing. The men of forty-five years and upwards who have their allotments have some interest in life, and are not obsessed with the unfortunate idea that no employment can possibly await them in the future, and that therefore they are of no value as units in a self-respecting community. The fact that these men have the opportunity given them to bring some- thing into the home maintains, not only an element of hope, but what I believe a Britisher regards as of more value than anything else, self respect.

I see in some parts of this country, particularly in the neighbourhood of our towns, not only public gardens but gymnasia, and, if I may be allowed to mention them, aerodromes being provided to the displacement of allotment gardens. I cannot persuade myself that that is taking a long view in the best interests of the country. I want to utter the hope that when the provisions of Clause 3 of this Bill, operating under the Board of Education, come to be carried out by the local authority, some sympathy will be shown to the allotment holders rather than that, for these new purposes of physical welfare, they should be displaced from their helpful and, as I believe, nationally useful activities.

I do not want to say anything more except that, knowing something of the activities of my noble friend Lord Aberdare and of Sir Iain Colquhoun, I most warmly welcome their appointment as Chairmen of the Advisory Councils for England and Scotland respectively. I am perfectly sure that under their Chairmanship the movement will not only proceed as the Government desire, but also proceed with new sympathy for those voluntary organisations which are doing their best to help in this desirable movement. May I add one word, and refer to the appointment of Captain Lionel Ellis as the organising secretary of the Advisory Council for England and Wales? Those who have known anything about the work of the National Council of Social Service for the last nineteen years must realise its enormous value and, in addition, the far-seeing vision and energy which Captain Lionel Ellis has thrown into his work as its secretary. If he does anything like as good work for the new Advisory Council as he has done for the National Council of Social Service, I am perfectly sure that the work will be carried on with great success and with great advantage to this country.

LORD ABERDARE

My Lords, my new headmaster, the President of the Board of Education, has moved the Second Reading of the Bill with the lucidity and thoroughness which one would expect of him and has left me very little of substance to add. However, I think it is entirely wrong, when there is a good Bill before this House, that a little more should not be made of it and a little more verbal support given to it. I hope, therefore, that I shall not weary your Lordships if I cover a certain amount of the same ground in the few words which I have to say. I should like to support this Bill, not only from the position which has surprisingly come my way—and here perhaps I may thank the three noble Lords who have been good enough to say those very kind words about me—but also because I have myself gained so much value, especially before and during the War, from physical training, and have derived so much enjoyment from cricket and other games. Naturally I would wish that everyone in this country could get an equal opportunity. Especially would I wish that everyone could feel what it is like to be really fit.

The ideal behind this campaign is an ideal of personal fitness: fitness for the greater enjoyment of life. We should fight hard to remove the reproach that we are a C3 nation. And we should aim at making everybody fit and therefore happy. I have no doubt that efficiency at work and zest for the pleasures of life can be enormously increased by being in good physical condition. I agree the whole structure of this Bill, and the only fault I can find with it is that it did not come earlier. The Greeks, two thousand years ago, knew that the only educated man was the man who was fit in body as well as in mind. It is curious that we remember that fact by the Latin tag "Mens sana in corpore sano". Perhaps my headmaster can give me the Greek equivalent! The best Greek thinkers did not, however, believe in the athlete or the champion as the ideal for everyone. Plato said that "the athlete was on the slippery slope which led to degeneration." The Greeks' great merit was that they practised what they preached and acted on the knowledge that the fit man was the happy man.

I believe that the result of this Bill will be bigger than any one anticipated who was instrumental in its original introduction to our democratic life. I foresee a great strengthening of the moral fibre and character of the citzens of our country; this, among other things, should go a long way to reduce the number of inmates of the prisons and asylums. I foresee better health, which will mean the need of less medicine and drugs and should go far to relieve the pressure on our hospitals. I foresee better mental balance and alertness of mind, which should have very far-reaching effects, even so far perhaps as to reduce the number of deaths on our roads.

There is little left for me to say in amplification of what the President of the Board of Education has said about the technical effect of this Bill, but perhaps I may be allowed to reply to some of the criticisms which have been made of its purpose and otherwise. The first is of militarism. I am sure there is no truth in the charge that the Bill has a military motive, and I am glad to say that no responsible leader of public opinion has ever said so. The scheme seems to me to be the natural result of the demand of the children after leaving school because of their appreciation and understanding of the benefits of being physically fit. The aim is to inculcate a new way of life and a new attitude of mind. I need only stress what the President has already said: that the scheme is completely voluntary and that there is no regimentation. Compulsion or uniformity would be entirely alien to the national traditions and, I am sure, would be very much resented throughout the country.

Secondly, may I refer to gymnasia? A noble Lord for whom I have the very highest respect and who has been doing and, I am glad to say, continues to do such excellent work for youth, is reported to have said that gymnasia are unnecessary. I wish it were so, for I should like to see all exercise taken in the fresh air. What with our climate, however, the fact that darkness draws in early during over half the year and that the majority of our people are at work during the day light and live in large cities and towns where there are few playing fields within very close reach, gymnasia are generally a necessity. It is not the intention of the Council to set up gymnasia in pepper-pot fashion up and down the country. The Council are equally concerned with providing for swimming, walking, cycling and all forms of sport and exercise. They do not want to make everyone do physical jerks, though I should be glad personally to hear that everyone was doing his daily dozen. There are many people who do not realise that modern exercise in a gymnasium is a pleasant and enjoyable thing. Such exercises give poise, balance, and the sense of rhythm, and really help sportsmen and athletes to do better at their activities. Boys like advanced gymnastics because of the chance to show off their strength and skill. "Gyms." can also serve other purposes—they can be the meeting place for boxing, fencing and other clubs, and also the sites for badminton, net-ball and other games.

Thirdly, may I say a word on nutrition? It has been stated that a vast number of children are under-nourished, and not fit for any physical training. The quotation which I noted was that "Anæmic children look distressed after doing physical training." I know that the Government have been, and are, taking steps to improve nutrition, which means better housing, better working conditions, etc., as well as supplying extra food in certain cases. This country is one of the best fed in the world. No school child, I am sure, need be underfed. I believe that ample powers and machinery exist for feeding children who need it. The machinery should be used, and the responsibility lies largely with the teacher, who has emergency powers to put a child on the feeding or milk list until a doctor can be seen. I am sure that no one would purposely put children through a course of physical training which was too much for them. I think that this subject has been overstressed and does not really arise under this Bill. May I state, however, that recent routine examination in London schools showed that of 184,733 children examined—these were unselected children—only 122 were found to be seriously ill-nourished, that is one in 1,500. Recently I was told by a reliable social service worker that he saw no sign of under-nourishment in Battersea.

Fourthly, may I say a word about overworked pitboys? It was stated in another place that boys working in mines, who had to get up at 4.30 a.m., would not be fit at any time to take advantage of this Bill. Some people may find difficulty in taxing exercise owing to working hours, but even those who engage in heavy manual work are made more brisk and are refreshed by physical exercise. Novelty and variety are probably the reason, but there is also the fact that different muscles are being brought into play, thus relieving the strain. There is a wealth of testimony to this effect. Major Gamier, who for some thirteen years has so well and successfully been training teachers and leaders at the Lucas Tooth Gymnasium in the East End of London, speaking on the wireless the other clay, gave an example. A bricklayer's labourer, who felt tired after carrying bricks up his ladder, was refreshed after half an hour in a "gym". I think there is no doubt that a boy or man who takes regular exercise of a scientific type can do manual work with less weariness. It is the difference between being in training and out of training. Fifthly, and lastly, surprise was expressed that the B.B.C. did not provide early morning broadcasts. Discussions took place with the B.B.C. sometime ago, but certain technical difficulties were standing in the way. I am hopeful, however, that they will be making an announcement shortly, although possibly only of an experiment.

Now may I say one word about the National College? There must be an adequate supply of teachers, leaders and organisers. It is necessary to see that facilities throughout the country are properly used, and to keep people enthusiastic. The National College, to my mind, is a vital necessity, and not only for this purpose but for carrying out the very necessary medical research. I am not intending to say anything further upon the question of medical research, seeing that Lord Dawson is here and may be inclined to speak on the subject. Certainly no one can be more qualified to do so, I feel the College is perhaps the mainspring of the whole movement.

The Council must arouse a personal ambition in everyone to be fit and healthy. For this purpose they will need to use all the resources of modern publicity, such as posters, booklets and films. They must keep physical training plus recreation steadily before the people, and encourage them to use their leisure hours wisely. They hope to see the people of the nation fit and happy, so that they may enjoy their life to the full. They do not aim at getting champions, but wish everyone to reach a reasonable standard of proficiency in whatever line of activity they care to take up. My Lords, if this new machine does its work then it is only left to the individual to do his bit. I trust that we shall find that a very large number of our people over school age will join in, and if they do I think that one day it will be recognised that the day on which this Bill became law was a milestone and a turning point in the history of the progress of this country.

VISCOUNT DAWSON OF PENN

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend Lord Aberdare that this Bill is of vast importance, because it does give method and structure to a policy which will aim at the promotion of the fitness of the nation. It is necessary not only in the interest of the present generation but of future generations, that they should be given the best opportunity to turn those great potentialities which are particularly notable in the British race into actualities. We have only to go back to the time of the War to visualise what powers are in our blood. At Aldershot, at the beginning of the War, there were sent down a number of lads who, you would have thought at the time, could never be converted into anything approaching a soldier. At the end of six weeks they already showed an alteration; at the end of six months they were unrecognisable. And my belief is that if the youth of this nation get the opportunity of a training in fitness they will create a surprise by the rapid way in which they will respond, for they have a certain elasticity, not only of body but of mind, which makes them respond very easily to advantages in the way of physical education.

I said I would urge that not only is this an important matter to the present generation but a higher standard of physical fitness is necessary for the preservation of the nation in future generations, and I will try quite briefly to put that forward. We have to remember that in securing a fit race in days gone by nature did a large part of the work. She killed off the unfit, and only the fit survived. But we are gradually undoing nature's efforts by our developed sense of greater humanity and a more acute conscience towards those who are in distress and those who are weak. But if we are to continue that policy of looking after the weaker brethren—and I cannot conceive anybody doubting that that is a right policy—we must remember that we are at the same time undoing nature's plan for discarding the weaklings of the race. It therefore becomes doubly important for us to set up a policy which will create fitness. If we create fitness and give the proper opportunities it is inevitable that the more fit and efficient will come to the fore. Consequently the more fit and efficient will lead the nation, and the fit boys will ultimately marry the fit girls, and you will raise the eugenic standard of the race. It must be borne in mind that the young are all hero worshippers and they will follow the leaders of their own generation. If therefore you give opportunity to those who are most fit to move forward, as they inevitably will, in the company of their generation, they will set the pace of conduct and the standard of fitness for those who will come after them.

May I make one reference to the National College? I agree with my noble friend Lord Aberdare that that from one point of view is the pivot of this scheme. If we have a suitable college—and I hope it will be within reach of London—and if that college is erected in suitable and large enough grounds, we shall be able to have a community of students where they will learn the technique of their business, where men who are going to take up physical education as a whole-time job will be trained, and, in addition to those, where organisers and leaders for the voluntary organisations can receive a training of lesser duration and less strenuousness. And I hope there will be one more class regarded. I hope that we shall be able to choose the best of the boys who are passing into adolescence and give them at this college a special six-months training. Thus we may test out those who we think are potentially fit, and be able to give those who do turn out to be fit the opportunity of becoming the leaders of their generation in the walks of life which they individually pursue.

One word on the subject of nutrition. Is not the difference between my noble friends Lord Aberdare and Lord Strabolgi this, that the distribution in this country of what is called malnutrition—or what is, I think, very often more accurately called under-nutrition—is patchy? If one goes to the London elementary schools, one is very much impressed with the great change in the children. They are for the most part well nourished, even in the poorest districts. They are well dressed. They are a different generation from the children we used to see years ago. On the other hand, if you go to the distressed areas where unemployment is rampant, I agree that there are places where under-nourishment may be found, and in some places one cannot get away from it. It is quite obvious. In connection with under-nutrition I think we are apt to lose sight of the fact that so many of the people of this country who are the heads of households have never been taught how to choose food. They do not know how to spend their weekly earnings to good advantage. Any one who has had opportunities of going into the homes of those who are less well off than oneself will be struck by the fact that they do not know how to choose food—food that is well within the reach of their earnings.

Further than that, so few of them know how to cook it. If you compare this country with certain countries on the Continent, the difference is manifest. If you go into the homes here you may see children sitting round a table and, instead of wholesome fond which has been cooked for their consumption, you see tinned fish, tinned vegetables and many other things which avoid the trouble of cooking. It is not only because the parents are unwilling to cook—in many instances they have never been taught how to cook. The result is that the homes of those of the in industrial classes do show more than one could wish an under-nourishment which is partly due to their want of education in this particular. It is not due to any carelessness or to want of love for their children, because there is nothing more striking than the devotion to the children to be found in most homes in all classes in this country: it is due to want of knowledge. And I believe that one of the best investments that the Government could make would be to provide travelling vans to go about the country and stop here, there and everywhere to give lessons and lectures on the choice and cooking of food. I believe that people are ready to receive such instruction, because they are beginning to understand that the choosing and cooking of food are no small matters in securing the proper nourishment of our younger people. I have nothing but praise for this Bill. I agree with my noble friend opposite that it gives an opportunity for opening up a new era. By the means provided in this Bill we have a prospect of giving this race the opportunities which it needs to bring itself to the forefront in physical fitness and happiness.

EARL STANHOPE

My Lords, I rise only to thank your Lordships who have taken part in the debate for the kind way in which the Bill has been received. I think the main point raised by the noble Lord opposite, Lord Strabolgi—the question of nutrition—has been very adequately dealt with by the noble Viscount, Lord Dawson of Penn. I find myself in entire agreement with everything that Lord Dawson has said. I have not been very long in my present office, but I have already been making inquiries in the direction in which spoke, and my own view is that it is largely a question of education much more than a question of lack of money. A great deal can be done in that direction I am sure.

May I remind the noble Lord opposite of this, too? Many people are inclined to quote the very high physical development in Germany, and yet the younger Germans were those born either during or just after the War, when the question of nutrition in Germany was of course one of great difficulty and when practically no children, whatever their class or whatever their wealth, had much chance of getting adequate food. Similarly in regard to Czechoslovakia. Those of your Lordships who know something of the conditions in Czechoslovakia will say that anything of that kind was quite out of the question here; even amongst the unemployed the standard of life of our people here is so much higher than it is there. Yet in Czechoslovakia, by voluntary methods, the improvement in physique of all classes, and particularly working class, has been very remarkable. It has been due not to better nutrition so much as to physical training and physical development given by the sort of methods that we propose under this Bill.

My noble friend on the Cross Benches, Lord Bledisloe, did not, I think, quite understand what I endeavoured to say to your Lordships, which was that the Grants Committee will make grants to voluntary associations every bit as much as to local authorities—in fact, in some ways, more so because local authorities already receive grants from the Government direct for many of these services such as swimming baths in urban areas and so on. The proposal is that we shall not as a rule give a grant to the voluntary association itself, but that we shall only give a grant for a specific object—the building of a gymnasium or the making of a swimming bath. That will no doubt be recommended by my noble friend's association or some similar body, but the grant will not be paid as a rule to his headquarters. It would be the recommendation of the local committee that such and such a thing is required at such and such a spot, and a grant will be made towards the provision of this facility. In conclusion, I can only again thank your Lordships for the support you have given to the Bill.

On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.