§ Mr. Kennedyasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether any legislative or other action is in contemplation, in view of the revelations of low physical standards and disease directly attributable to poverty, malnutrition, and wrong feeding, contained in the first Report of the Committee on Nutrition for the Colonial Empire, in view of the fact that the infantile mortality rate per 1,000 births in the Colonial Empire which ranges from about 130 to 370 is due, in the opinion of the committee, to remediable economic causes?
§ Mr. Brackenasked the Secretary for the Colonies whether adequate financial resources will immediately be made available in order to relieve the many cases of semi-starvation described in the report of the Committee on Nutrition in the Colonial Empire?
Mr. Creech Jonesasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the recommendations of the report of the Committee on Nutrition in the Colonial Empire will have his immediate attention; whether he is satisfied that the causes of the deplorable ill-health, inefficiency, general lack of well-being and maternal and infantile mortality are ignorance, poverty, low standard of living and inadequate medical services; whether he proposes to expedite and increase the research surveys on nutrition in the Colonies, to make more money available for educational and health services, and to launch forthwith projects for short- and long-term planning of economic development so as to improve the material welfare, physical health and mental alertness of the native peoples in the Empire?
Mr. M. MacDonaldThe report has been brought to the attention of the Governments of all the Colonial Dependencies,2400W and the House may be assured that it will receive full consideration, both in the Colonies, and here, with a view to appropriate action being taken, In general, as the report itself points out, improvement in nutrition in the Colonial Empire must depend upon steady and concerted efforts over a period of years, and there is no quick remedy. Ignorance is an important factor in causing malnutrition, as well as the low standard of living and too little variety of foodstuffs consumed. While there is a very wide field for much further work, the possibilities of which are now being examined, action is already being taken to combat malnutrition. For instance, in all parts of the Colonial Empire increasing attention is being paid to maternity and child welfare work, and in several cases this has already led to a reduction in infantile mortality though in many places the figures are still much too high. In several territories the Legislatures have voted considerable sums for the feeding of school children. Agricultural Departments throughout the Colonies are devoting a great deal of attention to improvement in methods of production and to the raising of more food crops and animal products for local consumption. This work is of prime importance in the efforts to improve nutrition in the Colonial Empire.
Moreover, important nutritional surveys are in progress in Nyasaland and Tanganyika. They will, it is hoped, lead to a concentrated campaign of improvement in the districts where they are taking place. Many from the Colonial Development Fund has been earmarked for much more work of this kind. Committees are also engaged in nearly all parts of the Colonial Empire on preparing plans for further local work. I would repeat that a very great deal remains to be done, but pending further examination of the report by Colonial Governments as well as by the Government at home I am not in a position to add to what I have said.