modified when these facilities for diagnosis and treatment [recommended
by the Commission] have been in operation for some time, and the
question of notification should then be further considered. It is also
possible that when the general public become alive to the grave dangers
arising from venereal disease, notification in some form will be
demanded." The Commission supported the adoption of a recommendation by
the Royal Commission on Divorce to the effect that where one of the
parties at the time of marriage is suffering from venereal disease in a
communicable form and the fact is not disclosed by the party, the other
party shall be entitled to obtain a decree annulling the marriage,
provided that the suit is instituted within a year of the celebration of
the marriage, and there has been no marital intercourse after the
discovery of the infection. The Commission urged that more careful
instruction should be provided in regard to moral conduct as bearing
upon sexual relations throughout all types and grades of education. Such
instruction, they urged, should be based upon moral principles and
spiritual considerations, and should not be based only on the physical
consequences of immoral conduct. They also favoured general propaganda
work, and urged that the National Council for Combating Venereal
Diseases should be recognized by Government as an authoritative body for
the purpose of spreading knowledge and giving advice.

Another important Commission, sitting almost simultaneously with that
just referred to, was the National Birth-rate Commission, which began
its labours on the 24th October, 1913, and presented its first Report on
the 28th June, 1916. The Commission was reconstituted, with the Bishop
of Birmingham as Chairman, in 1918, to further consider the question,
and especially in view of the effects of the Great War upon vital
problems of population. Among the terms of reference the Commission were
requested to inquire into "the present spread of venereal disease, the