§ Captain PLUGGEasked the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to the fact that, during the last year, 4,429 would-be recruits for the Army were refused on account of bad teeth; and whether he proposes to take any steps in the near future to improve the present arrangements in the schools of this country for inspecting and arranging for attention to be given to the teeth of children attending schools?
Mr. STANLEYMy hon. Friend appears to have misread the reply given 1741W by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for War on the 14th July, which stated not that 4,429 would-be recruits had been rejected on account of bad teeth, but that 4.429 per cent. of the applicants examined were rejected for this cause. In Circular 1444 issued in January last, I called the attention of local education authorities to the fact that the School Dental Service is seriously incomplete in most parts of the country, and urged them to examine their present arrangements with a view to securing that their dental staff does not fall short of the requirements of their areas. Since the issue of that circular a considerable number of proposals for the appointment of additional school dentists have been approved.