HL Deb 21 September 1943 vol 129 cc50-7

LORD HANKEY had given Notice that he would ask His Majesty's Government whether national bread is supplied to His Majesty's Forces serving in the Mediterranean theatres of war, and, if not, why not; and move for Papers. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I raise this question in a spirit of inquiry, in order to elucidate the facts. My attention was first drawn to the subject by private letters from the Mediterranean, stating that after units arrived there they were served only with white bread, to the detriment of their digestive arrangements— though it was put in more forcible language than that. When oar Armies arrived in Tunis, and bread was served out by them to the civilian population, it was stated by newspaper correspondents that that was the first time that the people there had had white bread for many years. Then the late Mr. John Hilton, in what must, I think, have been his last broadcast, referred to the whiteness of the bread supplied to the Forces. Finally, when Sicily was occupied, the newspaper correspondents reported that the population said that it was the first time for eight years that they had tasted white bread. There seemed to be not much doubt, therefore, that white bread was supplied to the Forces, and accordingly I put down this Motion.

I do not raise the subject from the shipping point of view, because I hold that the Army must have the best, and that the shipping must be found for it. I raise it solely from the point of view of the health of the Forces, which I submit is of critical importance in view of the present and coining campaigns on the Continent. Why do I say that white bread is not the best for the health and physique of the troops? On March 11, 1942, that epoch-making day when my noble friend the Minister of Food announced the introduction of the national bread, Lord Horder, in welcoming the innovation, gave this assurance to your Lordships. He said: My colleagues and I are uniformly of opinion that no single step which the Government could have taken in respect of the nation's food is so calculated as this one to raise the level of the nation's nutrition. That forecast, I submit, has proved correct. The Minister of Health and Sir John Orr and others have told us that the health of the nation has very greatly improved. I do not think there is any doubt that the change in the bread has played a considerable part in the improvement. In the same debate I expressed the hope that this rule would be extended to the Fighting Services, whose health and staying power would soon respond to this improvement in their diet. The Minister of Food nodded assent, and in fact the national bread was extended to the Fighting Services at home, and I do not think that anybody can help seeing—I live in the middle of troops myself—how much their health has improved.

That seems to me to make it all the more remarkable that our fighting men in the Mediterranean, of whose heroic deeds we are all so proud, are not given the same advantage. The nation and the Army have suffered dreadful things in the past from the deceptively attractive but pernicious white bread of the last fifty years. I could quote reams from international reports, and if it were not so late I should quote from the massive history of "The Englishman's Food" by Professor J. C. Drummond and Anne Wilbraham—Professor Drummond being the very eminent scientific adviser to the Ministry of Food. He and his collaborator lay great stress on the terrible evils that we suffered in our teeth and in our bones by the introduction of white roller-milled flour in the last part of the last century. I will make only one very brief quotation: Bad teeth were certainly one of the chief causes of the high proportion of rejections (40 per cent.) which so alarmed the Army authorities when recruits presented themselves for service in the South African war. That state of affairs continued right down to just before the war, when the rejections for bad teeth continued to be so heavy that the Army authorities had to accept men with that defect, and in many cases to provide them with dentures when necessary. I have been told on very high authority within the last few weeks that even to-day not more than 5 per cent. of the recruits for the Army have a good set of teeth. It sounds simply terrible, but my authority is unimpeachable. That is a frightful admission for an Imperial race.

But I shall be told we really are tackling the matter—milk for children, improved bread and so forth. I agree that a good deal has been done. Those are advances, but apparently only at home so far as the Forces are concerned. Why then do not the men who are doing the fighting get the same benefit? We shall be told, I am sure, that the national flour will not keep in the Mediterranean. That was the explanation given to one of the newspaper men in Tunisia. I particularly ask the noble Lord who is going to reply that your Lordships may be told whether any attempt, even on a small scale for experimental purposes, has been made to store it there and, if so, with what result. The reason why I ask such an elementary question is that I really have heard such tarradiddles about the store-keeping qualities of flour which I have controverted by the experience of twenty years in my own household with wholemeal bread, which is of higher extraction. But, even if the storage explanation is correct, it is hard to believe that the difficulty is insurmountable. For thousands of years a score of nations have been fighting all over the Mediterranean, in Spain, Italy, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, Palestine, the deserts of Syria and Libya, and the whole of North Africa. Wellington's Armies fought all over the Spanish peninsula from 1808 to 1814, Abercromby's Army in Egypt in 1801, and we occupied Sicily from 1806 to 1815. All that happened long before white bread was discovered.

Somehow or other the administrative difficulties of milling the com have always been overcome. Is it seriously contended that if the modern "poverty" white bread had never been introduced, or if it had been discarded, as it ought to have been when the frightful havoc it was creating was established, we could not have supplied armies of the size employed in North Africa, Sicily and Italy with bread? Obviously that is inconceivable. There is no difficulty in storing the grain in these climates. Joseph, as recorded in Genesis 41, stored it in Egypt for seven years, more than three thousand years ago, and Egypt was later for centuries the granary of Rome though the voyage often took a month. I do not think it it contended that there is any difficulty in storing the grain. It is a milling problem, and I would here ask some questions. Would it not be practicable now that we are committed to extensive campaigns in the Mediterranean, to utilize and, if need be, to supplement the considerable milling facilities which must exist in North Africa and Sicily and Southern Italy, so as to supply a more satisfactory Hour? The second question is, has any scientific investigation been made of the possibility of improving the storage facilities for national flour, or for improving its keeping qualities in these climates, or both? Thirdly, if neither of these expedients is practicable, cannot some advance be made on the very unsatisfactory starvation white flour—something between white flour and national flour, which will still keep? Lastly, can we get no enlightenment from South Africa, where, as Lord Horder told us on March 11, 1942, the national wholemeal is of 90 per cent. extraction, as compared with 85 per cent. for the British national wholemeal, and I think 75 per cent. for the ordinary white flour? I ask these questions, and I submit that the matter really is of vital importance.

Our Forces have to be able to stand up to the rigours of the climate of the Mediterranean, particularly malaria and dysentery, and ought to 'be fortified with the very best nutritional advantages. It must be wrong to feed our men on bread from which has been extracted all the vitamin A, nearly all the vitamin B1, and a large proportion of the calcium, phosphorus and iron. I submit that every effort should be made to avoid it. If I am told that I am misinformed, that the Fighting Forces are receiving national bread, no one will be more delighted than I. If we can be told that reform is coming as soon as existing large stocks of white flour are used up, that would be a very good second best. At the least I hope that we shall be told that our Forces receive some compensation in their diets for the loss of these vitamins, and that the possibilities of improving on the present white flour are being intensively explored. I beg to move.

LORD SEMPILL

My Lords, before my noble friend replies, I hope your Lordships will allow me to make a few remarks in support of Lord Hankey's Motion. Firstly, my noble friend Lord Horder wishes me to say how very sorry he is not to be here as he feels very keenly on this question. The plea that has been advanced to your Lordships by my noble friend Lord Hankey for wholemeal bread for His Majesty's Forces, and also for all His Majesty's subjects, is a very vital one indeed. We have, as your Lordshops know, struggled for a long time to get the present 85 per cent. extraction flour, and it is to be hoped there will never be any sliding back from that; but it has taken, as I say, a long time to achieve that present standard of excellence in our bread.

My noble friend mentioned the fact that only five per cent. of the Army recruits had good teeth. That is a very serious figure indeed. A few days ago I had the pleasure of spending the day with the medical authorities of the Royal Air Force, and I asked the leading officer what the main difficulties were in regard to the recruits at present coming into that splendid Service. He said "In one word, teeth." I asked, "Why?" He said "The white bread of the past and too much sugar." That shows how very real is the plea that Lord Hankey has advanced. When we consider that in the British Empire there is only one spot in which teeth are perfect—that is in Tristan da Cunha—it shows it is possible to achieve in this island something akin to that. I hope your Lordships will give strong support to the plea that my noble friend Lord Hankey has made to retain wholemeal bread for all His Majesty's subjects, whether they are serving in the Forces or in civil life.

THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (LORD CROFT)

My Lords, the noble Lord who raised this very proper inquiry into a subject so near his heart has given us an interesting account of his views. I should like to preface my remarks by saying that though I cannot give him great satisfaction in my answer to his Motion, I hope he will rest assured that I am not in conflict with him on the merits of national bread, as to which I am quite incompetent to judge, but which I hope to show does not really enter into this matter from the Army point of view owing to difficulties which I must explain. I must confirm the noble Lord's information that national bread is not, in fact, being supplied to His Majesty's Forces in the Mediterranean theatres of war. The reason for this is a very simple one. In order to cut out all unnecessary transport, flour is not shipped to these theatres from this country, but from the areas where the wheat is grown, namely, Canada and Australia. Your Lordships will no doubt recall that the decision to make this flour in this country was based primarily on the necessity to make the fullest possible use of home- grown and imported wheat in order to cut down the quantities of wheat which had to be shipped here. These considerations, as the noble Lord will be the first to realize, do not apply to countries such as Canada and Australia, which do not import wheat. These countries do not, in fact, make national flour, and no shipping to the Mediterranean would therefore be saved if they did.

Even if national flour could conveniently be shipped from Canada and Australia, it would, I submit, be inadvisable to do so. Large reserves of flour must be kept for considerable periods for the use of the three Services in theatres of war. Owing to the climate, and for other reasons, the storage conditions in the Mediterranean theatres are not usually as good as those which are available in this country, and it has been found that white flour keeps better and longer than national flour in a hot climate and in unfavourable storage conditions. I would mention that the scientific evidence on this subject is, we believe, most emphatic. The noble Lord asked whether any experiments had actually been made in North Africa. The answer to that is, not so far as I am aware, at any rate upon any large scale, because there is no national flour in that area upon which to experiment. But I understand that tests have been made under similar conditions, and we naturally would be only too anxious to see, if the flour was on the spot, what steps could be taken still further to preserve the flour supply.

The noble Lord suggested that the milling facilities in the Mediterranean area should be supplemented, but he will appreciate, I am sure, that the existing facilities were built to supply the needs of the local inhabitants, and there is no useful surplus capacity available for the use of our Forces. There are two main reasons against building new mills which might be considered. First of all, adequate mills already exist in Australia and Canada, and the duplication of these facilities would use up skilled labour, expensive manufactured materials, and shipping space. Secondly, the grain ships would be compelled to unload at the ports where the mills had been constructed and not, as at present, at whichever ports are at the moment most conveniently situated for supplying the troops. Finally, I can assure the noble Lord that the health of our sailors, soldiers and airmen is not suffering as a result of this policy. They have in the Middle East stood up to the strain in a very remarkable manner, and it is generally conceded that all the way through that wonderful campaign in the Desert they were extremely tough and fit. The rations on which their daily diets are based are, my noble friend will be pleased to know, scientifically built up to give them the quantities and the types of food which they need in order to remain fit to carry out their duties. The food provided for them contains a full measure of those constituents of national flour which were not present, or only present in small quantities, in the white flour previously used in this country. I am glad to be able to assure your Lordships that, from the scientific point of view, that is so.

My noble friend asked whether we could not get any lessons on this subject from the Union of South Africa. I was only aware yesterday that he was going to raise this matter, and I am afraid I have not got the information yet from the Union. But most certainly I will cause inquiry to be made. I realize that the noble Lord has raised this question primarily on health grounds. I for one am sure that the virtues of national bread are great. Our country has certainly not suffered but has benefited since the change. I can find no lack of benefit myself in the new diet. But the main point appears to us to be that there is no prospect of getting wheat meal flour to the Mediterranean unless we build mills there. That, for reasons which I have attempted to give, is not possible and for those same reasons I think your Lordships will agree that at the present time it is undesirable.

LORD HANKEY

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for the tone of his reply and for the full information he has given. He did not give me entire satisfaction, I am afraid. In the last of my three points at the end I suggested that at least perhaps we could be assured that the deficiencies were met in some form and on that point the noble Lord's answer was satisfactory. But that was rather the last resort, and I cannot help feeling that more should be done to get over these difficulties. For our machines, for our lorries, for our guns, we would not put up with anything but the best oil, the best fuel, the best lubricants and the best explosives. The human machine is infinitely more important even than the mechanical apparatus with which our men have to fight, and I feel that no effort ought to be spared to bring their food up to the highest point of nutritional value. But as I have said, my Motion was one of exploration, a reconnaissance, and I ask your Lordships' leave to withdraw it.

Motion for Papers, by leave, withdrawn.