ANTE-NATAL HYGIENE : DISCUSSION 411 



the Women's Co-operative Guild and he had counted be- 

 tween sixty and seventy cases of gross abuse from all parts 

 of the country. He had also with him a typewritten supple- 

 mentary list and from what he read there could be no doubt 

 that it was a public scandal of the first order that the 

 nation's money should be expended in the manner it was. 

 One of the cases recorded was that of a man who, having 

 been paid the money under the maternity benefit, went and 

 lived with another woman. Plenty of cases had been re- 

 ported such as that, which was the foulest of all conceivable 

 abuses of the benefit. They intended that the money should 

 be paid over to her whose money and whose child's money 

 it was, and they would be neglecting their duty unless they 

 struck a blow for the women who were not represented 

 in the House of Commons and against whom very consider- 

 able pressure was being brought, as, for instance, by the 

 Order of Foresters, who said it was an insult to the hus- 

 bands. It was the fact that the maternity benefit had been 

 very much abused and Dr. Sutherland had added other 

 instances to the lists which he held in his hands. If time 

 permitted he would have read the whole list, but he could 

 only say that there was every conceivable kind of improper 

 use and abuse of the maternity benefit which was directly 

 for the mother and the child. It would be infinitely better 

 for both if there had been no maternity benefit. He was 

 strongly of opinion, however, that the motion to be proposed 

 by Mr. Robertson, and voted for by the representatives 

 of the men, would be passed. They had good evidence that 

 this maternity benefit was said to^be regarded as a benefit 

 for the husbands the most idiotic thing ever enacted in 

 Parliament. They had good evidence that over and over 

 again it had been nothing else but a publican's benefit and 

 it was high time that they should express a strong opinion 

 that this should be stopped. 



Miss BONDFIELD (Women's Co-operative Guild) said she 

 was very glad to be able to endorse the paper read. She 

 wanted that very important gathering to thoroughly under- 

 stand the strength and support behind the resolution which 

 would be submitted by the Executive Committee. When 

 the Bill was first drafted and introduced into the House of 

 Commons, the Women's Co-operative Guild said the 

 maternity benefit should be the mother's benefit. At the 

 Foresters' Conference it was stated that the Standing Com- 

 mittee's decision was the result of the influence of a little 

 group of women who lived in London, but she wished to tell 

 them that it was the spontaneous opinion of the working 

 mothers of the country two years ago. There was no one 



