"When there is no special distress" means good times in England; for the people of England have come to look upon starvation and suffering, which they call "distress," as part of the social order.

Chronic starvation is looked upon as a matter of course.

It is only when acute starvation makes its appearance on a large scale that they think something is unusual I shall never forget the bitter wail of a blind man in a little East End shop at the close of a murky day.

He had been the eldest of five children, with a mother and no father.

Being the eldest, he had starved and worked as a child to put bread into the mouths of his little brothers and sisters.