284 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

nence, and would lead parents to forget their responsibilities;
but a <teiiqfag birth rate helped to change opinion, and the
growth of medical knowledge made it plain that there were many
matters on which even the most dutiful mother could profit by
expert advice, The more progressive authorities took advantage
of an Act of 1907 to develop child welfare work,, and by the end
of the War all authorities were taking some action. The 1936 Act
makes those authorities which have charge of education respon-
sible also for welfare, and requires them to appoint a Maternity
and Child Welfare Committee, of which at least two members
must be women. The committee provides advice and medical
treatment through clinics and visitors to homes, and can supply
milk free or at cheap rates. The service, like that of hospitals* is
run in co-operation with voluntary work. Some authorities
content themselves when seeing that there is a reasonable number
of voluntary clinics* and helping them to secure premises; others
build clinics and maternity homes of their own. The infantile
mortality rate, i.e., the proportion of children who die in their
first year was in 1936 fifty-nine per thousand, less than half of
what it was at the beginning of the century, Poverty and bad
housing have & great effect on this figure; but some estimate of a
welfare authority's efficiency can be formed by comparing the
present rate with that for previous years in the same area. More
than half the mothers of young children attend welfare centres,
and the health visitors keep in touch with all but a small proportion
of such families. At five years of age the children become the care
of the Education Authority; one defect in present arrangements
is the lack of efficient attention between the ages of one and five.
Local Authorities have recently been urged by the Ministry of
Health to make greater use of their powers and remedy this
defect.

All health activities are supervised by the authority's Medical
Officer of Health* His annual report gives a good indication of
the effect .of the authority's policy in health, housing and similar
services. He cannot be dismissed without the consent of the