ROYAL COMMISSION ON NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE. REPORT. To THE KING'S MosT EXCELLENT MAJESTY. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, WE, the undersigned Commissioners appointed under Your Majesty’s Royal Warrant of the 11th July, 1924, “ to inquire into the scheme of National Health Insurance established by the National Health Insurance Acts, 1911-292, and to report what, if any, alterations, extensions or develop- ments should be made in regard to the scope of that scheme and the administrative, financial and medical arrangements get up under it’ humbly beg leave to report as follows :— CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION. PROCEDURE OF THE COMMISSION. 1. We held our first meeting on the 17th July, 1924, and at that meeting considered generally our Terms of Reference and also discussed certain preliminary questions of procedure, including amongst others that of the expedience of admitting the Press and the public to those meetings at which witnesses were to tender evidence and submit to examination. We subsequently decided that, on a balance of considerations, our work could probably be discharged with greater efficiency in the absence of those restraints which the presence of the public might impose on certain witnesses. In view of the general interest felt in the questions submitted to us and of the large sections of the popula- tion who might be directly affected by any conclusions at which we might arrive, we felt, however, that it was of the utmost importance that the widest possible publicity should be given to our proceedings, not merely from the point of view of informing those immediately concerned, but aiso with the object ‘of stimulating further evidence whether by way of comment upon or of criticism of, the evidence which might be tendered to wus. We accordingly decided that a short summery of the proceedings