WORLD’S BLIND

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1010, 28 June 1930, Page 29

WORLD’S BLIND

TOTAL OF 1,251,164 IN CIVILISED NATIONS LEAGUE AIDS SURVEY The thirty-five most highly civilised j countries in the world, with a com- i bined population of a little under a 1 billion people, have, according to figures made public by 4he League of Nations. 1.251,164 recorded blind 1 people. These figures are revealed in a re- 1 port on blind persons made to the ; Child Welfare Committee by Dr. Estrid I Hein of Denmark. Accoridng to Dr. Hein's figures, col-! lected after an intensive survey of various countries, Palestine and Egypt rank highest in blindness, the former • with 16.6 per cent, of it 3 900,000 popu- | lation sightless, while in Egypt nearly 1.2 per cent, of 13,000,000 people are blind. Confronted with the problem oi making the blind useful and contented citizens of the world, the League of Nations’ social section is continuing its inquiry to determine the best means for dealing with the question oi rehabilitation and prevention of increase among the world’s unfortunates. The fact that several of the world’s most populous countries —India, China. Russia and Turkey—with a combined population exceeding another billion and a-half, are not included, and that their blind statistics would show particularly high percentages, naturally makes the existing figures over-optim-istic. - [ Reliable figures cannot be obtained from India and China and the Russian census is incomplete, i As a result of the League’s investigations many countries are expected to take measures for prevention of blindness at birth, the mose recent discoveries in the medical world being placed at .the disposal of the League’s health section. Methods of rehabilitation of those already blind, as well as social assistance, will be worked out for the mutual benefit of League members and the world at large. The chief questions the Child Wei- : fare Committee is seeking to answer ! are: 1. Can anything effective be done to prevent some causes of blindness? 2. Can definitions be established for ! the purposes of obtaining more reliable statistics? 3. Is it the duty of the State to = secure maintenance and education for j blind children where parents are un- I able to do so? 4 Ought school attendance for blind children be compulsory? , 5. Should vocational training in in-1 j stitutions be compulsory? 6. How can the League committee I co-operate with various national bodies j and Governments in solving the prob- j j.lem of the blind?