SOCIAL SURVEY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 210, 3 August 1940, Page 7

SOCIAL SURVEY.

COMPLAINTS IN COMMONS. •MINISTER’S DEFENCE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Aug. 1. An interesting debate took place in the House of Commons to-night on the question of the war social survey of Britain being conducted by investigators making house-to-honsc visitations at the instance of the Ministry of Information. The main criticisms were that such action was an invasion of the privacy 'of the ordinary householder and housewife. The process was described by one speaker as “snooping and spying around the homes of citizens.” He said that members of Parliament themselves were quite competent to represent public opinion as revealed in their constituencies. On the other hand, some members congratulated the Ministry of Information on adopting a' new and scientific method of social survey to discover tile opinion of British people, stating that it was not a novel idea, having been successfully used for many years by the 8.8. - -and the Post Office. Lady Astor said many ordinary housewives were leading very anxious lives at present and answering questions gave them something to talk about. "" VALUABLE INFORMATION. The Minister of Information (Mr A. Duff Cooper) said it was of the greatest value to the Government to know the state of mind and contrition of the people. For two and a-half months the system of obtaining information had been in active operation, and there had been only one complaint. Information of great value was being obtained by a method which was working well and caused no perturbation in the public mind. Mr Duff Cooper said the information obtainable through members of the House of Commons was limited. Its accuracy and modernity were and the qualifications of members of the House were limited. _ “The campaign of criticism is a Press stunt,” ,Mr Duff Cooper said. “If there are snoopers in the world they are employed by the Press. Unhappy would l>e the Government relying solely on the Press for information. The investigation began In the middle of May. I do not believe the sufvev is disturbing the popular mind and advise the Government to continue it. ’