Abstract
THE time-honoured adage that ‘It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good’ may possibly receive a further exemplification of its truth and appositeness if the moral to be drawn from the lesson of the recent drought in Great Britain is brought home to the national conscience. Even if it were not a matter of common knowledge, and, it may be added, of harsh experience in many parts of the country, the serious admissions and warnings of the Minister of Health during the debate in the House of Commons on April 12 on the Water Supplies (Exceptional Shortage Orders) Bill would be more than sufficient evidence of the unpreparedness of the authorities to cope with a general shortage of water such as is now prevalent, and although an endeavour is being made in a nationally characteristic way to ‘muddle through’ the emergency, the situation is one which cannot be regarded with indifference and unconcern. In moving the second reading of the measure, Sir E. Hilton Young made a scriptural reference to ‘the writing on the wall’. He could scarcely have chosen an illustration of graver import or more sinister significance.
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Water Supplies and Emergency Legislation. Nature 133, 625–627 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133625a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133625a0