THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

95

sudden  stop  in  the  rise  of  prices  synchronises  with  the  change  of
Ministry  and  the  determination  not  to  load  the  industry  with
more  work  than  it  can  undertake.  .  .

The  facts  were,  as  set  forth  on  page  41,  that  the
fall  of  prices  was  brought  about  by  Dr.  Addison  himself,
who  at  the  end  of  February,  1921,  by  a  single  administrative ­
  order  lowered  the  price  of  houses  from  £950  to
£800,  and,  by  further  administrative  action  before  he
retired,  lowered  that  price  about  £50  more.
On  27th  July,  Mr.  Trevelyan  Thomson,  H.P.,  forced
from  the  Minister  an  admission  that  his  subordinate
had  misrepresented  the  facts.  Dr.  Addison  also,  in  a
letter  to  the  Press,  challenged  the  Minister  to  prove
Sir  Charles  Ruthen’s  statement,  or  to  withdraw  it  with
a  suitable  apology.
No  apology  has  been  given  for  an  untruth  which  was
so  laudatory  of  the  present  Minister.
(6)  The  attitude  of  the  Government  to  the  various  classes
of  Society.
The  Housing  Act  of  1919  authorised  Local  Authorities ­
  to  purchase  land  for  housing  compulsorily  by
making  and  publishing  a  “  compulsory  order.”  Such
an  Order  had,  however,  to  be  confirmed  by  the  Minister
of  Health  before  the  Authority  could  gain  possession
of  the  land.  Now  the  land,  especially  in  rural  parts,
is  usually  in  possession  of  various  important  people,
whose  wont  it  often  was,  when  they  found  that  the
Local  Authority  were  determined  to  get  their  land,  to