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Cambridge.—About 8000 more donors of all blood-groupsare needed for the Eastern Region.

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Liverpool.—10,000 new donors are required to maintain thepanel at a working level ; if it remains below this figurecritical demands may not be met. -

Manchester.—30,000 new recruits are needed. At Christmas

supplies were nearly exhausted and 50 volunteers just meetthe critical need.

Sheffield.—The panel at the peak war-time period numbered100,000; now it is 30,000. At least 30,000 more donors areneeded to meet commitments in the North Midlands.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.-20,000 new recruits are needed. Duringthe last few weeks of 1945 the blood contributions were 30%short of the need for the 25 banks in the region.

Wales.-The Blood-transfusion Service needs 10,000 recruitsfor immediate needs during the next three or four months.The Ministry of Health is making a special appeal to

those who have been on donor panels to continue theirsupport wherever they are. Those not already enrolledin the Blood-transfusion Service are asked to enrol nowat the local blood-transfusion depot or when a localappeal ismade for new donors.

SHORT-SERVICE COMMISSIONS FORSPECIALISTS

A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

THE Central Medical War Committee has been informedthat/on the recommendation of the Medical Personnel(Priority) Committee, it has been decided that specialistsand graded specialists recruited to the medical branchesof the Forces will now be accepted for short-term employ-ment for eighteen months if they were born beforeJuly 1, 1915. The commissions held will be known as" specialist short-service emergency commissions." Theywill be granted to those specialists and graded specialists(born before the above date) who are called up under thecompulsory recruitment procedure and to those abovemilitary age (born before July 1, 1905) who offer theirservices voluntarily.The Central Medical War Committee is instructed to

carry out specialist recruitment to the extent necessaryfor the replacement of serving specialists who are due forrelease in class A or recommended for release in class Band who cannot be released unless substitutes are pro-vided. The committee has been making every effortto increase the yield of specialist recruits, but only withlimited success; and already there are a considerablenumber of Service specialists whose release in class Ais being retarded. The committee therefore appeals foroffers of voluntary service and hopes that specialistsabove military age who might hesitate to offer theirservices for an indefinite period will be prepared toaccept the new short-service commissions. Officersholding these commissions will be returned to the UnitedKingdom before the end of their 18 months’ service andwill be eligible for 28 days’ leave on full pay on comple-tion of their service.

Volunteers should communicate with their local medicalwar committees, or, in the London area, with the Com-mittee of Reference at B.M.A. House, Tavistock Square,W.C.l. The need is urgent and it is hoped that therewill be an immediate response to this appeal in orderthat serious hardship to the Service specialists due forrelease may be prevented.The short-service commissions will not be granted to

general-duty officers, but doctors will no longer berecruited compulsorily for general duty unless they wereborn on or after July 1, 1915. Civil direction is nowapplied only to male doctors below the age of 31. Womendoctors are no longer liable to direction.

THE hospital built by Canadians in the grounds of Cliveden,the Thames-side estate presented by Lord Astor to theNational Trust, is to be presented to the trust as the Canadianwar memorial in Britain. The hospital, which contains600 beds and cost over half a million pounds, is to be admini-stered by the Nuffield Hospital Trust, and will eventually.become primarily a specialist centre for research into rheu-matic heart disease in children ; but for some years a generalsection will be retained to relieve the shortage of beds in thearea.

Reconstruction

THE INSURANCE BILL

EFFECTS AND IMPLICATIONS

THE Beveridge report, which appeared in November,1942, proposed to "abolish want " by ensuring thatanyone unable to earn a living should be able to drawallowances sufficient for subsistence. There was to be anational minimum standard of living.

In September, 1944, the Coalition produced a white-paper on Social Insurance which put forward a ratherless comprehensive instalment of " social security." Now,a little more than three years after Sir William Beveridgeastonished the country with his great plan, the LabourGovernment has presented Parliament with a Bill whichgoes further than the Coalition white-paper and if all goeswell should in fact fulfil the object of guaranteeingfreedom from physical want. Payment is proposed at thefollowing rates :

Sickness and unemployment : 26s., with 16s. for a dependantand 7s. 6d. for the first child.

Retirement pensions : 26s.Widows and orphan8: Widow’s allowance, 36s. ; widowed

mother’s allowance, 33s. 6d. ; widow’s pension, 26s.;guardian’s allowance, 12s.

Maternity allowarece .’ 36.s. ; attendance allowance, 20s.Maternity grant : £4.Death grant for adults : £20.Some of these rates are rather higher than those

recommended in the Beveridge report, and this shouldcompensate for the rise in the cost of living during thepast three years. For this reason, and because it ismore complete. the scheme as a whole is more expensivethan that of the Coalition ; but the additional cost is tobe mainly met by higher contributions. The amountspayable (including contributions for the National HealthService but not under the industrial injuries insurancescheme) will be : _

These payments, though substantial, will by no meanscover the entire cost of the benefits, which is estimatedat E452 million in 1949, rising to E496 million in 1955.In these two years something like S118 million andS143 million will have to be found by the Exchequer,which will also have to pay for family allowances. TheManchester Guardian (Jan. 25) points out that a highflat-rate for contributions, bearing hardly on those withsmall incomes, " is the price we must pay for our insistenceon maintaining the fiction that our social security systemis run on an insurance basis." -

" In fact, of course, social security is a synthesis of insuranceand public relief, different in character from each but servingthe purposes of both. Insurance is essentially the poolingby voluntary contract of specific and calculable risks, withpremiums actuarially related to risks and benefits to premiums.Social insurance, the compulsory pooling of common risksamong a more or less homogeneous group, is merely an inter-mediate phase in the evolution of social security."It adds, however, that the flat-rate has the advantageof bringing home to all of us that " security can be acostly privilege unless it acts as a spur to effort and

enterprise, and that its cost can be reduced in proportionas we accept the obligation to minimise our calls uponit as far as lies within our power."