THE HOUSING QUESTION 67 
proposal that the Government shall keep its promises 
to the ex-service men. 
Lord Robert Cecil : ". . . It is all very well to say that 
people ought to pay for their housing. So they ought to pay, 
perhaps, in one sense, for everything, but we, at any rate, in 
this country have very clearly laid it down that, for good or ill, 
there are many things in which the State shall assist the poorer 
citizens of the country. We have done it with regard to education 
and with regard to disease. We have done it with regard to 
housing in various ways. . . 
Finally, the National Housing and Town Planning 
Council, in their Report of August, 1921, say :— 
" It is all very well for critics to say that if the carrying into 
effect of this work had been left to the forces of enterprise a far 
larger number of houses would have been built at a much lower 
cost. 
“ This statement is absolutely out of keeping with the recorded 
facts concerning housing progress in other countries. 
“ In France and America home building for the poorer members 
of the community is at a standstill. In Belgium and Italy a 
certain measure of activity is being shewn by the State and 
Local Authorities acting in conjunction, but the actual achieve 
ments are far below those of this country. Throughout the whole 
of Europe and America the cost of building is so high that private 
enterprise has ceased to operate, and the pressure of demand for 
remedial action is as great or greater than it is here.” 
The following quotations shew the brave words of 
Ministers in 1919, when boasting of how they would, 
as in duty bound, deal with Local Authorities who 
failed to carry out their Housing obligations, and their 
dwindling courage as time went on :