§ MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONE (Sussex, Horsham)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if his attention has been drawn to the resolutions passed by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeon of England, on the 4th instant, approving and adopting the Report of the General Medical Council on the Midwives Registration Bill, brought in by the right honourable Member for Clackmannan and Kinross, in which it is stated that it is desirable that measures should be taken to protect lying-in women of the poorer classes from the grave risk which they now incur from 408 the unregulated practice of midwives, many of whom are ignorant and unskilful, and most of whom pursue their calling without due medical supervision; if he is aware that the question of compulsory registration of midwives has been considered by Select Committees of this House in two Sessions of Parliament, and that both Committees have reported unanimously in favour of a system of registration; and whether, having regard to the reports or the Select Committees, and to the opinions recently expressed by the General Medical Council and by the Royal College of Surgeons as to the need for legislation on this subject, he will either give facilities for the discussion of the Bill brought in by the right honourable Member or undertake to deal with it by a Government Bill in the present Session of Parliament?
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (for the FIRST LORD of the TREASURY)The facts are, in the main, as stated, but my honourable Friend has omitted to point out that the Report of the General Medical Council was far from endorsing the methods proposed in the Bill. I am afraid I cannot give a favourable answer to the last paragraph.