THE HOUSING QUESTION 
21 
It is true that if needs were re-investigated some 
areas would to-day show a decrease. But the contrary 
would be true in other areas, especially in a vast 
number of country villages, where houses were much 
needed, yet were not proposed in the original Surveys 
of Local Authorities. 
The Minister told the House of Commons on 13th 
March, 1922, that the Surveys of Local Authorities 
were not serious. Why does he say that ? His 
Department puts Local Authorities to immense trouble 
and then he ignores and insults the results they arrive 
at. 
NOTES ON THE FOREGOING. 
(1) The following interruption by the Minister of 
Health, Sir Alfred Mond, during the speech of Lord 
Robert Cecil in the House of Commons, on 13th March, 
1922, is illustrative of his mind :— 
Lord Robert Cecil : "... There were five years during 
which no houses were built. Then it was said with a good deal 
of force that the ordinary number of houses which were built 
in every year was, I think, 80,000, and therefore in five years, 
since no houses were built, you would expect a shortage of 400,000. 
Add to that the already proved shortage, which I say, and many 
of my Hon. Friends opposite say, was due very largely to the 
unfortunate experiment in land taxation—but whatever it was 
due to, which is not the point for the moment, there was a shortage 
of houses before the war. If you add to that shortage the 400,000 
which were not built during the war, you come very near the 
500,000, which the Right Hon. Baronet regards as such a ridiculous 
figure.” 
Sir A. Mono : " What about the number who were killed ? ”