§ 24. Major-General Sir ALFRED KNOXasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education whether he will con 515 sider the withdrawal of the recommendation to schools to use when possible pasteurised milk (paragraph 7 of Circular 1,437 of the 5th September, 1934), since the County Councils' Association at Westminster, on the 23rd January, declared that they were not convinced that pasteurised milk is superior to raw clean milk of Grade A quality as a food for children?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr. Ramsbotham)The ground for the recommendation made by the Board in Circular 1,437 is the superior safety of pasteurised milk, whereas the statement of the County Councils' Association appears to refer to the relative nutritive values of pasteurised and raw milk. On the latter point the Cattle Diseases Committee of the Economic Advisory Council expressed the opinion that, on the evidence available, any recognisable changes of quality induced in milk by pasteurisation rightly conducted are as a whole too small to outweigh the great advantage inherent in the protection from infection which the treatment secures. In view of this opinion and those expressed by the Royal College of Physicians and other bodies, my noble Friend cannot see his way to withdraw the recommendation in question.
§ Sir A. KNOXWill not the hon. Member allow that there is a great difference of opinion in the medical profession as to the value of pasteurisation as a protection against infection? Secondly, may I ask who is to find out whether the system is carried out properly and whether my hon. Friend will not agree that this is a severe handicap on the small producer of milk who cannot spend thousands of pounds to instal plant with the result that the trade is put into the hands of big combines?
§ Mr. RAMSBOTHAMThe great bulk of medical opinion advocates the pasteurisation of milk, and, in view of that opinion, it is very difficult for the Board to run counter to it.