Part of Private Business. – in the House of Commons am ar 18 Chwefror 1935.
It is, perhaps, to a London Member, a little distressful to hear the Metropolitan Water Board referred to in this House as "a powerful and wealthy corporation, determined to get its own way." If that allegation were made out, there would be every reason to vote for the Instruction to the Committee, but I suggest that the House would be very ill-advised to take up that attitude of criticism and judgment upon the Metropolitan Water Board, which has served London so well. The board has brought Londoners up on Thames and Lee water, and the purification of this river water has been a lifetime study for the skilled officers of the board. With the skill that they have acquired in the study of the problem they have preserved millions of Londoners from epidemics. The suggestion that the board's officers should be cut off from utilising a supply of river water whose management and purification they understand so well, and should by Instruction be told to look elsewhere, is a menace to the health of Londoners, which responsibility the competent officers of the board would not like to take over. The board has made London possible for the teeming provincials who crowd into it for their livelihood and their careers. An overcrowded London would not be tolerable in its present state of housing but for the way in which the board year after year has supplied it with ample quantities of pure water. The board has never yet, to the knowledge of London Members, misplaced the trust that we have in it, and I ask the House to say that the board should not have a public rebuff, while it is preserving the amenities and the health of the London which it has served so well.