§ Mr. JOWETTasked the Prime Minister if he has received a communication from the guardians of the Bradford Poor Law Union stating that, as the condition of the sightless community is daily becoming more precarious owing to the insufficiency of remunerative employment to enable them to cope with the burdens imposed upon them through the cost of living and increased taxation due to the War, the guardians press for the publication of the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Blind which was instituted in 1914 to inquire into the conditions of the blind, and for the embodiment without delay of such recommendations contained in the said Report as will materially benefit sightless persons; and, if so, what action he has taken in regard to it?
§ Mr. HAYES FISHERThe Prime Minister has asked me to answer this question. I understand that my right hon. Friend has not received the communication referred to. With reference to the publication of the Report, as I explained in reply to a question on the same subject by the hon. Member for Blackburn on the 17th October last, the Committee were unanimous in thinking that the interests of the blind community would be best served by deferring the issue of the Report' until a more opportune time. The question of publishing the Report will be 1841W reconsidered in the event of any change of circumstances occurring likely to be favourable to its issue.