§ SIR CHARLES DILKE (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether samples of china and earthenware coated with leadless glazes, or glazes containing a small percentage of lead, are still sent to the Government laboratory by manufacturers for testing purposes; or whether any difficulty ha~ been thrown in the way of that practice.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) The temporary arrangement made in 1899, under which samples of fritts and glazes have been examined at the Government laboratory, has been discontinued. The arrangement was made in connection with the proposal then put forward by the Home Office, that all glazes should conform to a certain standard of solubility and with a view to assist manufacturers in their experiments to provide themselves with glazes conforming to the standard. The arrangement became unnecessary as the chemists in the industry became familiar with the method of determining the solubility; and manufacturers had in fact, of their own accord, ceased to send specimens for a long time previous to the formal discontinuance of the arrangement. The arrangement at no time extended to the testing of samples of ware.