§ MR. WEDGWOODTo ask the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been drawn to a volume by Sir Victor Horsley and Dr Mary Sturge, entitled: Alcohol and the Human Body, in which it is stated that evidence is steadily accumulating that the stunted frames and weak development of many poor children is at any rate partly due both directly and indirectly to the action of alcohol; that one of the most frequent causes of evil habits and of sexual immorality among young people is the taking of alcohol; that for the sake of national morality as well as physique it is clear that in no form whatever should alcohol be used by the young, either in childhood or adolescence; if he will say what teaching, if any, is given on the subject in the public elementary schools; and whether he will prescribe and enforce lessons thereupon in all schools over which he has any authority.
(Answered by MR. McKenna.) The Answer to the first paragraph of the Question is in the negative, but I would draw my hon. friend's attention to 37 paragraph 7 in the prefatory memorandum to the new Code of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools, and to paragraph 4 in the prefatory memorandum to the new Regulations for Training Colleges, just issued, which will show, I think, that the Board of Education are doing their best to secure adequate and efficient teaching in the important matters referred to in my hon. friend's Question.