August 20 relating the dead-pan attitude of Uxbridge, Middlesex authorities to the application of a family of eleven for a larger house emphasises the need for a representative body to handle the affairs of parents and to 'negotiate with Government and civic authorities. Authorities prefer to arbitrate through such channels rather than with the individual; and this trend has increased markedly of recent' years. There is, however, no established Parents' Union. But in the Catholic Parents' Association there is a nucleus whose growth can take place in this direction. Eventually it need not be confined to Catholics. It is very apparent, however, that Catholics, apart from a few of our better-informed economists. are the only group qualified to take the initiative by reason of the fact that the Catholic Church is the only body in England which has held unswervingly to the tenet that the survival and good of the race rests on the large and freely-begotten family blessed in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
Parents'. Assnciations. without diverting one iota of effort from the present sctiools front, can, by apnointing a subcommittee of family vigilance, take the first step to sponsor the lost monc of the English family. An obvious initial move is to acquaint the Ministries of Health and Food and the local Medical Officer of Health of the existence and function of the association asking for approval and assistance in the objects aimed at.
There are any number of issues to which an energetic committee can then turn its hand. There is the seaside landlady who does not take in children -and equally the one who does-who will respectively go on black and white lists, There is such a matter of housing of large families, as prompted this letter. There is the circumstance that for schoolchildren not attending council schools or living at a distance from a council school, there is practicable scheme for provision of milk in holiday time; and holiday time for the oppressed rich and middle-classes may be 40 per cent. of the whole year. When it is remembered that milk is the main source of lime-the tooth and bone former-for the growing child, this milk question is not a trivial one. There is representation to motor car manufacturers that large families need large cars -if there must be unrestricted motoring post-war. There is the representation to borough surveeors that pavement curbs should be ramped down to facilitate the passage of peramhnlators at crossings as is done by the Borough of Margate. All this may he done in the seirit of the need for the awakening or civil consciousness to the needs of the family, so that by goodhemoured persistence and the Grace of God we may be enabled to bring up Catholic families once more in a world organised primarily for the continual renewal of the human race on its face -or as we say ourselves for the incarnation of souls to the greater glory of God.
PAUL' O'DONNELL.
Richmond. Surrey.