Voluntary Social Services
Miss MARJORIE GRAVES, M.P.
Tonight's broadcast is the first of four talks that will comprise the last group of this interesting series. They will deal with a subject that, again, is in many ways controversial. Which is the better? Voluntary social service or State control? The running of our hospitals under a voluntary system is our own particular characteristic, tradition, and pride. They are maintained by voluntary subscription; brilliant surgeons give their honorary services; nurses hold the ideal higher than the reward. And if all this should be a Government responsibility, as advocates on the other side contend, it must never be forgotten that it is the stimulus of voluntary activity which has made the health of the nation the growing concern of Government Departments today. Miss Marjorie Graves, who talks tonight and again on December 6, will not touch on the controversial aspect of the question, but will make an historical survey of the origin, growth, and effect of voluntary social service in this country. An authority on history, this particular subject her special interest, she is ideally suited to her task. She was elected Conservative Member for South Hackney in 1931, is a Borough Councillor of Holborn, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.