§ LORD CHARLES BERESFORDI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he will lay before the House a Return showing the cases of sickness on the Britannia, between the 1st January and 1st May, and stating the opinion of the medical officers as to whether this outbreak of sickness is attributed in any degree to improper feeding?
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYNo public school publishes lists of schoolboy ailments, and there is no reason why the Britannia should do so. Surely the noble lord does not wish to alarm anxious parents quite unnecessarily by an official list of such ailments described in technical medical language? But to allay any apprehension which the noble Lord's Question may have caused, I may state, though there have been a good many cases of mumps and measles, as there have been in many schools during the same period, I am assured that in other respects there has been no exceptional sickness. If the noble Lord will state to me on what authority he puts forward the innuendo as to improper feeding, I will give him an answer.
§ LORD CHARLES BERESFORDPerhaps I may be allowed to state at once that I have received several letters from parents of boys in the Britannia, complaining that a great number of boys have had boils and other symptoms of improper treatment.
§ SIR C. DILKEI also have received complaints in regard to the meat supplied on board.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTYYes, but the innuendo is that the medical officer has ascribed the sickness to improper feeding. There is no truth whatever in that suggestion. If cases of defects of diet are brought before me, inquiry will, of course, be made. I have heard that some inquiry is being made in reference to meat. But I must repeat that the medical officer reports there has been no exceptional sickness, and no sickness can be ascribed to improper feeding. I regret to see published statements which unnecessarily alarm the parents of boys on the Britannia.