§ Q5. Dr. Dickson Mabonasked the Prime Minister if he will now instruct the Ministers concerned to withdraw from distribution to the public the recent consignment of 13-year-old Government canned meat which has been identified by the Aberdeen medical officer of health as a possible origin of the typhoid outbreak.
§ The Prime MinisterAs my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland informed the House on 2nd June, there is no foundation for any suggestion that the infection at Aberdeen originated in canned corned beef from Government stocks.
§ Dr. MabonIs the Prime Minister aware that that is not the view of the man in charge of the exercise in Aberdeen, the Medical Officer of Health? Would it not be prudent, irrespective of whether that gentleman is right or wrong, for this consignment of stock to be withdrawn, along with the others authorised to be withdrawn by the Secretary of State for Scotland? Will the Prime Minister look again at the activities of Ministers in this regard and consider whether the Government inquiry should not have wider terms 1111 of reference, including Ministerial responsibility, and be headed by a person other than Sir David Milne, an ex-civil servant?
§ The Prime MinisterA great many people know Sir David and feel that this inquiry could not be in better hands. We want to find out how this infection started and the source. I can only repeat that there have been most careful inquiries into whether any tins came from stocks of Government meat into this supermarket. The answer as far as we know is "No".
§ Mr. PeartIs the Prime Minister aware that on Friday I put a Question to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as to whether stocks now held had been cooled in unchlorinated water? I further asked the right hon. Gentleman
…whether he will require all future consignments of corned beef to be cooled in chlorinated water before acceptance.In other words, we must err on the side of safety. Is the Prime Minister further aware that I received the surprising reply that no records were kept and that the Minister addedWhat matters is not whether the water is chlorinated, but whether it is hygienic "?—OFFICIAL REPORT, 12th June, 1964, Vol. 696, c. 111.]Was not that Answer both unsatisfactory and shocking? Will the Prime Minister insist on his own Ministers finding more information about Government stocks?
§ The Prime MinisterI gather that there are other ways of purifying water than by chlorination. One can distil or boil water. However, I am not standing on this, because the Question is about stocks of meat from Government sources. Questions on detail of how water should be purified should go to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Mr. H. WilsonAll of us have great respect for Sir David Milne, but does not the Prime Minister feel that it is wrong to appoint to an inquiry the recent head of a Department the activities of which must be under review and who was himself partially responsible for creating the system to be investigated?
With regard to the withdrawal of stocks, is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that, because of the danger to 1112 health of canned corned beef which had been cooled in unchlorinated water, ships on the high seas were diverted and not allowed to land their stocks here? In these circumstances, will the right hon. Gentleman look into the inter-departmental machinery to see why similar stocks which had already been landed were not withdrawn?
§ The Prime MinisterWe have been through all that before. [Interruption.] If hon. Members had been in their places, as I have been in mine, they would know that we have had this subject debated by question and answer time and again. I am asked today whether any Government stocks were in the supermarket concerned in Aberdeen. The answer, as far as we know, is "No".