Foreign News: Planned Vagrancy

Britain’s hobos were haunted this week by the specter of Government planning. A fortnight ago the Berks, Bucks and Oxford Vagrancy Committee was much impressed by a miniature Beveridge Plan for tramps titled: The Rehabilitation of Britain’s Hobo Population. Chief points: 1) compulsory medical examination of tramps by qualified specialists, with diplomas in psychological medicine; 2) new hobo training homes and hostels.

Efforts to locate Fred Husband, the author of the hobo plan, were at first unsuccessful due to the fact that Planner Husband is himself a tramp. The Vagrancy Committee tried to trace him with the help of the newspapers. Last week he was discovered in a fish & chips shop.

Said Husband to London’s Daily Mirror: “I saw Mr. Cripps [head of the Vagrancy Committee], and he is going to put my proposals to the Minister of Health. But this is only the beginning. I intend to draft a complete new ‘Reform Bill for Casuals.’ ” Asked why he had taken to the open road, he said: “It is in the blood. My great aunt and uncle were missionaries in Africa.”

Said Planner Cripps* of Planner Husband: sincere, intelligent, perhaps a little unbalanced. He added: “You never can tell about these people.”

* Not to be confused with Sir Stafford Cripps.