Great Britain -- Emigration and immigration; Noncitizens -- Great Britain
"You find a filthy bed, on which garments which are made are laid;
little children, perfectly naked little things, lying about on the
floor and on the bed; frying-pans and all sorts of dirty utensils with
food of various descriptions on the bed, under the bed, over the bed,
everywhere; clothes hanging on a line, with nothing more than a large
gas-stove with the ashes all flying about, and the atmosphere so dense
that you get ill after a night's work there; and that is the reason I
am deaf now."
In respect of sanitation, the foreign Jews appear to be the worst
offenders. The Sanitary Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians
admit in their Report that of 880 houses visited by the inspector, 623
were defective, and below the standard required by the Local Authority.
Of these no less than 341 were in Whitechapel alone. To quote a few
samples:--
"In Whitechapel, some so-called 'Model Dwellings' exist, in which
the drain of a water-closet had been entirely stopped up for three
weeks prior to the visit of the Inspector, while two of the cellars
(inhabited) were flooded with sewage, and had been so flooded for
four days past. At another place, where a noxious odour had prevailed
for years, the refuse which the Committee succeeded in causing to be
removed from the basement room, contained among its various components
the dead bodies of five cats, a dog, and a rabbit. The water-closet
drains of three other houses were discovered on the Inspector's visit
to have remained in a choked condition for three, five, and six
weeks respectively. At a house in St. George's-in-the-East, three
boot-finishers were found at work in a front basement room, while the
adjoining back basement room was flooded with sewage, which forced its
way up a gully supposed to be protected by a bell-trap. The cover of
this trap, as is generally the case with these appliances, was absent,
and thus the sewer had direct and unobstructed communication with the
interior of the house."
This extract is taken bodily from the Report of the Sweating Committee
of the Jewish Board of Guardians. They are writing of their own people,
and are certainly not likely to exaggerate the state of affairs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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