3) 
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MINORITY REPORT. 
We are convinced that the whole of this ‘work, so 
far as it is a matter of local administration, could be far 
better done by the Local Authorities already responsible 
for other health services. 
8. Secondly, we do not think that the administration of 
benefits paid in cash, being a health service, is a health service 
which it is desirable to administer through agencies specially 
constituted for the purposes of this service alone. 
9. In support of this view we would submit four arguments, 
one based upon considerations of general policy, and three 
upon: the practical consequences of these considerations. 
10. The first is that the citizenship of insured persons is more 
important than their insurability. Just as Your Majesty's 
Government refuse to accept the argument of Boards of 
Guardians that separate authorities ought to deal with citizens 
who happen to be destitute, so we hold that any attachment 
which insured persons may have to their Approved Societies 
can and should be transferred, with the work of the Societies, 
to the Local Authorities of the areas in which they live. 
11. The second argument is that the result of this transfer 
would be to remove the scandal, admitted by our colleagues, that 
Approved Societies comprising a very large part of the total 
insured population are administered with complete disregard 
of the direction of Parliament contained in Section 23 of the 
Act of 1911 that their affairs should be subject to the absolute 
control of their members. 
12. The Majority Report seems to us to evade that issue in 
the statement that most people do not ‘‘ maintain that degree 
of interest in public affairs which good citizenship postulates.” 
13. The fact is that the constitution of the Approved Societies 
to which we have referred, makes it impossible for the members 
to take any substantial part in the management. 
14. The local government franchise at least makes it possible 
for all electors to develop and manifest a proper concern in 
local administration. 
15. The lesson of events, as Your Majesty's Government 
recognise in relation to Boards of Guardians, is that the way to 
encourage citizens, including insured persons, to face their 
responsibilities and protect their pockets, is to reduce the number 
of bodies on whose proceedings they are called upon to pass judg- 
ment, and to concentrate in the hands of the Local Authorities 
already charged with most of the business which affects insured 
persons’ lives, the residue of the powers which can and should 
be locally exercised.