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be a party to handing over powers to anybody but directly 
elected representatives of the people, but the same people who 
now elected Boards of Guardians also elected the Town 
Council to which it was proposed to transfer power. Every 
body was bound to delegate its powers to committees. You 
couid not get on without them. It was not proposed to create 
any new authority, but whatever authority, for instance, had 
charge of public health should be given the control of the 
whole of public health in its particular locality. The 
Registrar of Public Assistance would be the servant of 
the democratically elected Council. There was no in 
tention of giving him any more powers than that of a 
Clerk to the Board of Guardians. He would have no other 
authority than that which the Council choose to give him. 
Boards of Guardians were the least democratic bodies ever 
known. As to the objection to getting rid of an ad hoc body, 
whatever was the Education Authority for the time being 
should deal with the children, and the same with the sick, and 
so on, whether it was an ad hoc body or not. In Scotland the 
Education Authority was still the School Board. You could 
not possibly have separately elected bodies for every purpose. 
It was far better to have one election and not a great many, 
which only increased the difficulty of securing adequate work 
ing-class representation. 
W. Harris (South Wales Miners’ Federation) supported the 
resolxition and gave an account of the work of Labour represen 
tatives upon a Board of Guardians in a district in South Wales 
where, out of forty-five members of the Board of Guardians, 
twenty-one were Labour representatives 
Lewis H. Berens (English League for the Taxation of 
Land Values) did not agree with either the resolution or the 
amendment, and thought they would get to the root of the 
problem by the taxation of Land Values. 
C. Burgess Snelling (Chelmsford Star Co-operative In 
dustrial Society) opposing the resolution, emphasised the 
necessity for local bodies meeting at a time when it was 
possible for representatives of the workers to attend. 
Frank Smith, L.C.C. (Right to Work National Council) 
supporting the resolution, said he was in favour of concentra 
tion. As to the charge of bureaucracy, officials had to carry 
out the instructions given them. Officials took their colour 
and their cue from the majority, so that wherever you had a 
reactionary majority you had reactionary officials. 
Frank W. Goldstone (Sunderland I.L.P.) supporting the 
amendment, spoke in favour of an ad hoc Education Authority 
and against permissive legislation. 
Dr. Marion Phillips (Central London Women’s Labour 
League) said that when the Guardians were the sole authority