Care of Defectives: Annual Meeting of Surrey Association: Discussion on the Hostel Scheme: The annual meeting of the Surrey Voluntary Association for the Care of Defectives was held on Thursday afternoon of last week, at 84, Eccleston Square, London, S.W., Col. the Hon. A. G. Broderick (President) was in the chair, and the attendance included the following: … … Two Definitions of “Hostel”: Mrs. Hume Pinsent, Commissioner of the Board of Control, said that the Mental Deficiency Act would be a dead letter if it were not for the Voluntary Associations. She was afraid that the idea of Hostels formulated by the Board of Control was a little different to that presented by the Association, but she thought they could come to some arrangement. Boys and girls who would always be feeble-minded and would always want some of the kind care which a mother gave to a child were kept in one institution for six or seven years, with the result that they got stale (hear, hear). They wanted a change and a less confined life. With benefit to themselves and to the community they might be transferred to a Hostel, where they would get affection and motherly care. A Hostel, in the mind of the Board of Control, meant home for trained cases, but Surrey had in mind a small, certified institution where cases which were giving trouble could be trained. If Surrey were going to have such an institution, the Board would be glad if they would not use the word “Hostel,” as the Board were trying to monopolise that word for their idea. She was sympathetic with Surrey in trying to establish such an institution. The danger of sending defectives straight to a Hostel from their homes and allowing them to go out to daily work however was that those in charge of them would not be familiar with their tendencies as would be the case of those defectives who had been in an ordinary institution for six years. A girl who was unstable and had an erotic temperament should not be sent out to daily work. The difficulty would be to get jobs for the defectives, but she was glad to hear that the Association had approached some factories and had hopes of work being found. Some cases which would not be very good in domestic service would make good factory hands. FACTORY WORK v. DOMESTIC SERVICE: Mrs. Le Personne expressed the opinion that it would be dangerous to put the girls into factories and thought they would be better and happier in service. Mrs. Pinsent stated that a forewoman would take them to and from the factories. The girls were most likely to come to disaster in service, as mistresses could not keep their eyes on them all the time. Domestic service was appalling for the number of girls who came to disaster. …
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949