were specially unsatisfactory in Johannesburg, where it was neces- sary to provide temporary accommodation in tents for persons who had no houses. A few of the large municipalities of South Africa have adopted the plan of building houses for their employees. The authorities of Cape Town built a garden village in the suburbs for this purpose, and Port Elizabeth had a similar scheme in view.
INDIA. The outstanding feature with regard to housing in India is the question of high rents, which had entailed considerable hard- ships on the inhabitants of the large towns. In some of the prov- inces temporary legislation against rent profiteering has been carried out. Although the question of rents most engages public attention, there is also a serious shortage of housing. The shortage of accom- modation in Bombay, for instance, was estimated in 1920 at ^9,000 permanent dwellings. The population of this city was over a million ; and the large majority of the population lived in one-room tene- ments. The squalor of the slums of Poona, Surat, and Ahmadabad has been the subject of comment. Town-planning on a large scale has been carried out at Delhi, where a suburban area of 800 ac. has been acquired by the Government. This district has been laid out on simple lines, with wide streets, and building sites have been leased for long periods.
FRANCE. The principal sufferers from the housing shortage in France are the inhabitants of the larger towns. In Paris the position is especially unsatisfactory; overcrowding prevails extensively, and conditions from the point of view of health are said to be deplorable. Housing conditions m the seaports may be exemplified by the case of Marseilles, where ruinous houses, condemned as unfit for human habitation, whose demolition had already been begun before the war, were again in 1920 in occupation. Commercial firms found great difficulty in obtaining labour in the locality owing to the shortage of accommodation for workmen.
There was not much evidence in 1921 of the building of dwellings either by public authorities or by building organizations. In Sept. 1919 the " Cheap Dwellings Bureau " of the Department of the Seine was engaged on plans for the erection of several garden suburbs out- side the city of Paris, but the high cost of labour, the difficulties of transport and other obstacles to building retarded the progress of these developments very appreciably.
The Government passed some legisjation, with a view to suppress- ing rent speculation, by which a certain rent limit is fixed, due allow- ance being made for increase from natural causes (building costs and so on). A decree was also issued to the effect that in towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants the owners of boarding or lodging houses must exhibit on their premises notices stating the number of rooms they have to let, and the rents which they ask for them. Notifications containing the same information must also be for- warded to the municipal housing office, should such an office exist in the locality. This legislation is due to the extraordinary demand for hotel and boarding-house accommodation, which had been increasing in proportion to the decrease in dwelling-house accommodation ; in Paris the number of persons living in such buildings in 1910 was 129,- 622, but by 1918 it had increased to 287,156.
ITALY. The attempts to meet the housing shortage in Italy have taken the form, in the northern towns, of the institution of coopera- tive societies and building clubs. In the central and southern dis- tricts the movement met with less success, as private individuals and cooperative societies were unwilling to invest their money in the building trade, and wished to be guaranteed by the State against any risk of loss. The building operations which had been inaugurated throughout Italy up to 1921 were expected to cost about 10,000,- ooo; the Minister of Industry made an annual State grant of 400,- ooo, and was prepared to increase it if the inhabitants and the co- operative societies showed the requisite activity. The Italian Government passed some legislation dealing with taxes on building. The houses built before April 1924 would be exempt from building and supertaxes for six years, and for four years after the builders would be required to pay half only of such taxes. If the building of these houses was begun before Jan. 5 1920 and finished before the end of 1921 they were to be exempt from all taxes and supertaxes for the whole of the succeeding ip years.
In order to facilitate the building of workmen's dwellings in Rome the Government issued a decree dealing with State loans, by the provision of which the Treasury might advance sums up to the amount of 1,600,000 to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Labour, which would make loans to building societies through the medium of the Bank of Loans and Deposits, the loans being guar- anteed by the State. Supplementary advances up to the amount of 400,000 would be made for roads and public services constructed by the municipality in connexion with the building schemes. The allocating of the grant was to be decided by a committee, presided over by the Minister for Industry, and composed of repre- sentatives of building institutions, the Bank of Loans and Deposits, and the municipality of Rome. The committee would exercise supervisory powers over the projected building schemes.
GERMANY. -The difficulties of the situation were increased after the cessation of the war, and the shortage of houses was in 1921 greater than ever. The shortage had increased by reason of the demobilization of the army and the large influx of persons returning from abroad and from Poland. The office of Housing Commissioner for Prussia lapsed in Sept. 1919, when the administrative work of
housing was vested in the Home Colonization Department of the Ministry for Social Welfare. An order issued by the Department in 1921 countermanded an earlier order respecting the entry of new residents into towns already full. The original order granted per- mission to some municipalities to veto this right of entry, but as the shortage increased numerous rural and other urban authorities clamoured for similar powers. In view of the economic disturbance that might ensue if the practice became widespread the Ministry withdrew the concession altogether. The rationing of house-room and the billeting of civilians in private houses was enforced in a number of towns, whilst supervision was exercised by the Housing Registration Offices over the letting or selling of houses.
The position of affairs in the large towns may be illustrated by the situation in Munich, where towards the end of 1919 the director of the Housing Office stated that matters were going from bad to worse, and that applications for houses to the number of 7,917 had been made at the local House Registration Office, the total number of empty houses available being twenty-three.
A considerable number of Home Colonization Associations were formed all over the country for the purpose of diverting the urban population to rural settlement areas, and in one mining district in central Germany a Home Building Association was formed, whose members intended to build houses for each other when their eight- hour day's work was ended.
NORWAY. The shortage of small dwellings in Norway was estimated at a total of 18,000 at the beginning of 1919. The housing problem was said to be largely a financial one, as there was a great need of a well-organized credit system in Norway. There were a few credit institutions, the most important being the " Workmen's Holdings and Dwellings Bank," whose powers were extended by the passing of a law in July 1919 which increased the powers to grant loans and allowed the local authorities to assume responsibility for larger sums than hitherto. In addition, an agreement was concluded between the Small Holdings and Dwellings Bank and the Nor- wegian Shipping Owners' League, whereby the latter placed a loan of 562,500 at the bank's disposal in order that it might once again be in the position to issue loans. A Housing Council, which was appointed in 1916, reported to the Government in 1919. One of the first practical results was the granting in Nov. 1919 of a loan to the Council of 562,500 out of Government funds, to be used for the building of dwellings of not more than five rooms.
SWEDEN. The decrease in building activity in Sweden resulted in acute distress as regards certain localities and certain classes of the community. The shortage of dwellings evoked clamorous demands, especially on the part of the extreme socialists, for the rationing of housing accommodation and other measures of State intervention. The Swedish Social Board, however, maintained that such measures would encroach on the privacy of domestic life, and would probably not result in any real improvement. The Board deliberated on the report presented by a special committee of experts appointed by the Government to investigate the conditions of housing in Sweden, and the main conclusion which it derived from the report was that the State should, in the first place, provide dwellings for Government employees. It proposed that a State grant of 5,600,000 per annum should be made during the next few years, and that 4,000,000 should be devoted to this purpose. The chief means recommended for obtaining the funds was a new Government lottery bond loan. A loan of this kind to the amount of 5,600,000 was floated in 2 bonds towards the end of 1919, and was a great success.
HOLLAND. A law was passed by the Government in 1918 dealing with measures to be adopted by the State and local authorities to relieve the distress caused by the shortage of houses. The law em- powered the Government to order the local authorities to prepare statistics as to housing, and to promote building schemes with a view to providing temporary huts as well as more permanent dwellings. The State was to advance, in the form of loans, 90 % of the cost of building, the amount thus allocated, in 1918, being over 1,000,000.
The total shortage of houses in Holland was estimated in 1920 at 60,000. The need was very great in Amsterdam, where about 15,000 houses were required ; in order to cope with the situation adequately it would be necessary for the municipal authorities to build 6,000 houses per annum for five years. For the whole country 49,000 re- quired to be erected each year during the same period. A scheme was prepared by which 10,000 houses were to be built by the Amster- dam municipal authority and 18,000 by the building societies.
SWITZERLAND. The housing shortage is acute in Switzerland, especially in Geneva and Berne. In the case of Berne a special decree was issued by the Federal Government, authorizing the local authorities to allow the tenants to remain in the houses which they occupied if they had no hope of obtaining other accommodation. Matters were better at Zurich, owing to the farseeing policy adopted by the local authorities during 1910-20. The Swiss Government made a credit vote of 400,000 to be allotted to the local authorities in whose districts the shortage was most urgent. Grants might be made to private individuals and to societies which were prepared to undertake building operations, provided that the Cantons showed willingness to take their share by advancing similar amounts.
AUTHORITIES. Sir Kingsley Wood, M.P., The Law and Practice with regard to Housing in England and Wales; Raymond Unwin, Town Planning in Practice, 6th ed. ; C. B. Purdom, The Garden
