THE process ofco-ordination went on rapidly after the publicationof the report of the Feversham Committee, and the call by theMinister of Health for a Mental Health Emergency Committee. The immediate practical result was the establishment of regional offices and the selection of key workers for each of the Civil Defence Regions.' Further co-ordination of the national voluntary organisations who were co-operating with the Minister of Health proceeded by stages to a Provisional National Council for Mental Health," and finally to the formation of the National Association for Mental Health (N.A.M.H.)3 when amalgamation was effected. (The Mental After-care Association, as we have seen, remained independent.)

The contribution ofN.A.M.H. and its immediate predecessors during the emergency, and in the difficult transition years which followed, is a striking illustration of elasticity and resilience. Much of their existing work had to be curtailed, some was discontinued for a time in the immediate dislocation which followed evacuation. But the tradition of experimental work was maintained and the role of the voluntary organisation as a pioneer was justified in the new ventures which were set on foot. The rapidly changing conditions called for considerable powers of

adjustment. There is no doubt that psychiatrists expected far greater casualties in the field of mental health, just as military experts forecast heavier casualties to life and limb, than were justified by the event. The mental health organisations were determined not to be caught unawares. So energetic was their response that they were said at times to be a source of embarrassment to the Ministry.' Fortunately, the organisations also possessed powers of self-criticism and could learn from experience. Later, it was a psychiatrist, the main speaker at an Interclinic Child Guidance Conference, who was to warn the members that there was danger in trying to oversell their speciality.2