DEDICATED  TO  THE  WORKING  MEN  AND
WOMEN  OF  BRITAIN

.  .  While  the  housing  of  the  working  classes  has  always
been  a  question  of  the  greatest  social  importance,  never  has  it  been
so  important  as  now.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  an  adequate
solution  of  the  housing  question  is  the  foundation  of  all  social
progress.  Health  and  housing  are  indissolubly  connected.  If
this  country  is  to  be  the  country  which  we  desire  to  see  it  become,
a  great  offensive  must  be  undertaken  against  disease  and  crime,
and  the  first  point  at  which  the  attack  must  be  delivered  is  the
unhealthy,  ugly,  overcrowded  house  in  the  mean  street,  which
we  all  of  us  know  too  well.
“  If  a  healthy  race  is  to  be  reared  it  can  be  reared  only  in  healthy
homes;  if  infant  mortality  is  to  be  reduced  and  tuberculosis  to
be  stamped  out,  the  first  essential  is  the  improvement  of  housing
conditions  ;  if  drink  and  crime  are  to  be  successfully  combated,
decent,  sanitary  houses  must  be  provided.  If  '  unrest'  is  to  be
converted  into  contentment,  the  provision  of  good  houses  may  prove
one  of  the  most  potent  agents  in  that  conversion.  .  .  ."
His  Majesty  George  V  at  Buckingham  Palace,  nth  April,  1919.

"  It  would  be  a  black  crime  indeed  if  we  were  to  sit  still  and
do  nothing  by  way  of  preparation  to  ensure  that  when  these  men
come  back  they  shall  be  provided  with  homes  with  as  little  delay
as  possible.  To  let  them  come  back  from  the  horrible  water-logged
trenches  to  something  little  better  than  a  pigsty  here  would  indeed
be  criminal  on  the  part  of  ourselves,  and  would  be  a  negation
of  all  that  has  been  said  during  this  War  that  we  could  never  repay
these  men  for  what  they  have  done  for  us.”— Mr.  Walter  Long,
in  1916,  when  President  of  the  Local  Government  Board.

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