MAJORITY REPORT 
JO 
SE —— 
conclusion that no case for the abolition of the Societies can be 
established on the broad ground of defects and shortcomings in 
administration. In saying this we are not to be understood as 
indicating that there are no faults to be remedied. We could 
wish, for instance, that in some quarters the interests of the 
insured persons were more fully considered in regard to such 
matters as expenditure on administration within the prescribed 
limit or that the rights of the members had been more fully 
respected when the constitutions of certain of the Societies were 
framed ; and we have had occasional evidence, which must be 
treated with respect, pointing to shortcomings in the payment of 
benefits and other dealings between the Societies and their mem- 
bers. But we realise that defects of these kinds spring less from 
improper motives than from those human weaknesses that in 
some form or another must reveal themselves in whatever type 
of organisation may be erected to administer a great scheme 
such as the one we have under review ; and we cannot accept 
them as amounting, in the whole, to the establishment of such 
a case against the Societies as to warrant us in recommending 
that they should be superseded. 
It has also seemed to us in the course of our investi- 
gation that certain of the Societies may be so large 
as to make it impossible for the highest degree of admini- 
strative efficiency to be attained, regard being had to the 
limits of human capacity to deal with an intricate piece of 
administration of which the subjects are not mechanical but 
human beings with all their idiosyncrasies and weaknesses. In 
regard to such of these matters as seem to us capable of 
improvement we make appropriate recommendations. Taking 
everything into consideration, however, we conclude that the 
Approved Societies should be retained as an essential part of 
the system and on this fundamental question we submit a recor. 
mendation to that effect. 
223. It must be clearly understood that our recommendation 
is made in relation to the Scheme of National Health Insurance 
as if exists at present, and that our view in favour of the retention 
of Approved Societies does not necessarily imply that develop- 
ments in the system of social insurance outside the range of 
present contemplation might not necessitate a reconsideration 
of the position. 
224. In disposing of this subject we think it well to refer to 
the existence of the considerable number of * Associations,’ 
** Conferences ”’ and ‘“Joint Committees ”’ into which ths 
Societies, which means primarily their official elements, have 
been banded in connexion with their work under the Acts. For 
the interchange of views as to the best methods of administration 
with due regard to the interests of the Societies and of the insured 
persons individually, these groupings should afford admirable 
opportunity and should be of corresponding value; but we are