A FITTER BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 9

A FITTER BRITAIN

GOVERNMENT'S PLAN

MORE PHYSICAL RECREATION

WIDE AND VOLUNTARY

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, February 10,

The British Government is planning to have a "fitter Britain." It has instituted a scheme, likely to cost £2,000,000, which will be under the control of the President of the Board of Education and the Secretary for Scotland, and will work through local authorities and voluntary organisations. . Its main features are: The extension and improvement of existing facilities for physical training and recreation, such as gymnasia, playing fields, swimming baths, camping sites, and club and community centres;.and the establishment of a national college of physical training, for the instruction of leaders, teachers, and organisers. The main object of the scheme is to provide adequate opportunities of physical recreation for young persons and adults whose lives are normally passed in offices and workshops. The scheme will be purely voluntary for, according to the White Paper containing the V Government's proposals, compulsion would be "wholly alien to the national temper and tradition." "The aim of the Government," it is added, "is not to secure that, between certain ages, every boy and girl practises certain physical exercises or achieves a certain standard of physical development, but to inculcate a wider realisation that physical fitness has a vital part to play in promoting a healthy mind and human- happiness. It is a way of life and an attitude of mind the importance of .which is continuous and not limited to certain years in early youth." HEALTHY RECREATION. The Government has decided against confining the scheme to formal physical training. It will embrace the whole field of physical culture and healthy -recreation. To implement it the Government proposes:— The immediate establishment _cyr two National Advisory Councils, one for England-and Wales and ore for Scotland, each composed, of 30 members, to survey the nation's need of physical recreation facilities and advise on the best methods of meeting them. i ' Establishment of two Grants Committees, each of three members, through which -grants will be made to voluntary organisations and local authorities. It will also invite the Advisory. Councils to organise local committes to develop and co-ordinate the work in the various localities and to advise the Grants Committees on the distribution of local grants. Establish a national college of physical training. Make a grant to the National Playing Fields Association, for the provision of more playing fields. - Make a grant to the Central Council of Recreative Physical Training, to assist it to promote the supply of teachers and leaders until the training college is ready. '■ ■■■■-■ , . The cost of the scheme, cannot be accurately estimated until the National Advisory Councils have surveyed the field. The Government considers;! however, ,'that; capital -grants; would total about "£2,000,000 spread over a period of about three years. • After that the annual charges' would be abour £150,000. . Legislation is to be introduced to give the necessary powers to the grants committee and to local authorities and county councils. LORD ABERDARE CHAIRMAN. The members of the Advisory Councils will be men and women, selected for their knowledge and experience of the work both of local authorities and of national voluntary bodies, together with others familiar with the questions involved. They will be empowered "to delegate any of their powers to sub-committees and to appoint outside persons to sub-committees. Mr. Oliver Stanley, president of the Board of Education, when explaining the proposals in the House of Commons,- dispelled any impression that the Government were indifferent to the problem of nutrition. • They, like everyone else who, looked at the English people, rejected- the illusion that:most of them were too underfed to profit by physical training. But they did recognise, that nutrition was complementary to physical training, and were not neglecting it. Meanwhile, they should not wait to deal with physical training until they could deal completely with questions of wage standards, food - prices, housing, and noise, which were admittedly all involved in physical education in its widest sense. They had to meet at once a rapidly • growing demand for more physical training, which was growing because physical training had become the most popular item in the school curriculum and adolescents kept a taste acquired as school children. He therefore briefly recapitulated the organisation proposed in the White Paper of a Central Advisory Council, of which Lord Aberdare, famous in sport aiii in recreational organisation would be chairman. Lord Aberdare was better known as Mr. C. N. Bruce, the Middlesex cricketer. -He succeeded his father, the second baron, in 1929. He is an allround sportsman and has won special distinction in rackets and tennis; golf, shooting, and lawn tennis are also among his recreations. Lord Aberdare, who is 50 years old, is hon. treasurer of the National Association of Boys' Clubs and a member of the Miners' Welfare Committee; DEMOCRACY'S ONE DEFENCE. It has been suggested that the National Physical Training College should be established on the Crystal Palace site. Sir Henry Buckland, general manager of the Palace, confirmed the report that the site had been inspected, apparently with this object. "There would certainly be room for the college, but no definite proposition has been made to me or to the Crystal Palace trustees. The trustees have in mind for the site a big scheme of a national or Empire character. It is possible that the proposed college might be included, but the suggestion would first have to be discussed by the trustees in relation to the wider scheme," said Sir Henry. Commenting on the scheme, Mr. Stanley also said: "To me there is an importance even greater than the value of physical fitness in our bodies and in our mental outlook. We are today facing a great challenge to democracy. We try on both sides of this House to defend democracy with speeches and articles. At the best these are indif-1 ferent bulwarks. There is only one defence of democracy, and that is to make it work, and to show that we can equal the mechanical advantages of dictatorship while keeping free our individual freedom."