4: 
MAJORITY REPORT. 
Eo 
to provide for an increase of sickness benefit in excess of bs 
a week is to impress upon the Society the importance of treat- 
ment benefits and to induce it to allocate a reasonable proportion 
of the surplus to those benefits. We consider that this practice 
should be continued. 
605. Beyond this we do not consider it desirable to lay down 
any fixed statutory limit to the amount which a Society may 
devote out of its surplus to the provision of cash increases, and 
we are of opinion that the question of the disposal of a surplus 
should be determined in accordance with the wishes of the 
members, subject to a reasonable control by the Department. 
We do not therefore recommend any change in the present 
position in this matter. 
SECTION H.—MISCELILAANEOUS QUESTIONS 
AFFECTING APPROVED SOCIETIES. 
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES WITH FEW MEMBERS IN A PARTICULAR 
NATIONAL AREA. 
606. The Act does not lay down as a condition of continued 
approval for any national area (England, Scotland, Northern 
Ireland or Wales) any minimum limit as to the number of 
members of an international Society resident in that area. We 
are informed that cases have arisen in which such Societies 
have retained approval in respect of one or more national areas 
other than that in which the head office of the Society is situated 
although the membership in such areas may be negligible 
compared with the total membership of the Society. Notwith- 
standing its small membership in one or other of the national 
areas, the Society is required in such cases to keep separate 
accounts in respect of its business in each country and to draw 
its funds from the several National Health Insurance Funds 
for the various countries. It has been suggested to us (Kinnear, 
Q. 23,652-23,656) that, in order to simplify administration in such 
cases the Minister or the National Health Insurance Joint 
Committee should be empowered to withdraw approval in 
respect of any country in which an international Society has a 
very small membership. The effect of this would be that the 
Society would lose the right to accept as new members persons 
resident in the country in question, a right, it may be observed, 
which they cannot have energetically exercised in the past. : 
We accept the view that in the interests of administrative 
efficiency it is desirable to make provision to this effect. We 
accordingly recommend that Section 30 (2) of the Act should be 
amended so as to provide that where the number of members of 
an international Society who are resident in any country, other 
than that in which the head office of the Society is situated, is less 
than a specified small percentage of the total membership, and 
is not more than a certain number, approval may be withdrawn