in 1944 the disease re-appeared killing eleven people in Haifa and spreading up and down Palestine. The Department of Health was severely under funded. In 1936 he attempted to introduce a health insurance scheme to pay for medical care in Arab villages. This project was halted with the outbreak of the 1936–1939 revolt. In 1938 and again in 1945 he put forward similar proposals for funding health care, modelled on the insurance systems used in England. In a report he pointed out that in Jenin with a population of 50,000 there were four doctors whereas amongst a similar population in Great Britain you would expect to find 25. Another area of concern was the lack of care for mental patients. There was only an asylum in Bethlehem and a section of Acre prison being maintained by the state; a total of around 160 beds. In 1942 there was a critical fall in conditions in privately run mental hospitals in Tel Aviv when the municipality stopped funding them. At the time the High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, commented that the treatment of the insane in Palestine "reflected badly on the Government". The 1946 "Survey of Palestine", prepared for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, commented that Government expenditure on health care was low compared to other countries and that medical policy had not been carried out. Provision for control of tuberculosis was "still lacking", accommodation for those with mental diseases was "still inadequate". There was a shortage of trained midwives and the number of infant welfare centers had only risen to 38. Infant mortality amongst the Muslim population was 251 per 1,000 births. Venereal disease had become endemic. John MacQueen retired in 1946. References Administrators of Palestine 1895 births 1969 deaths People from the Black Isle British Army personnel of World War I Royal Field Artillery officers Royal Army Medical Corps officers