In considering the development in London of the movement for the provision of meals, one is struck by the haphazard way in which the vast organisation has been built up. The County Council has from the first been reluctant to undertake the responsibility for its underfed children. "The whole question of deciding which children are underfed, and of making special provision for such children," declared the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Underfed Children in 1908, "should really be one for the Poor Law Authority to decide, and not the Education Authority."[408] The attempt to make the Guardians carry out their duty having signally failed, the London County Council was forced to undertake the task, but it has done so in a half-hearted fashion. The results of this failure to grasp the problem in a statesmanlike manner are conspicuously evident in the conditions prevailing to-day. Footnote 408: Report on the Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children in twelve selected schools, 1908, p. 3. (c)--The Extent of the Provision. The total expenditure on the provision of meals in London amounted, for the year 1912-13, to L99,805. Of this by far the greater part, L98,111, was derived from the rates, voluntary contributions amounting to only L3. Apart from these voluntary contributions collected by the Local Associations, however, a few schools "contract out" and supply the meals from their own private sources.[409] Moreover, large sums were collected by voluntary organisations for the provision of meals during the holidays, especially during the summer holiday of 1912, owing to the distress caused by the dock strike. And besides this holiday feeding, which, since it cannot be met out of the rates, must be paid for out of voluntary funds, there are still a certain number of voluntary agencies which are providing meals quite independently of the County Council. Footnote 409: Thus at St. Giles'-in-the-Fields the expenditure on the provision of food is still met from voluntary funds. At Hampstead, in all the schools except one or two, the provision of food for necessitous children is paid for by the Hampstead Council of Social Welfare. The Care Committee refers to the Council of Social Welfare cases which are suitable for home relief, _i.e._, cases where the mother can be trusted to look after the children at home; in these cases adequate relief for the whole family is given by the Council. If the mother cannot be trusted or if she goes out to work all day, the children receive meals at the feeding centre, the Council paying for these meals.