§ Mr. Kirbyasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether his attention has been called to a letter published on 2nd February in the "Manchester Guardian," over the name of R. A. Whitson, of Keswick, of which a copy has been sent to him, complaining of the administration of the eggs branch of his Ministry and specially of the wastage of 300 dozen eggs due to inadequate arrangements for marketing them; and what steps he proposes to take to prevent such wastage in future?
§ Mr. MabaneI am glad to have an opportunity of commenting on this letter, as it is grossly misleading. The eggs to which Mr. Whitson refers were not new-laid eggs, as might be supposed from the letter, but eggs which had been incubated for 18 days at a temperature of over 100 degrees. The quality of the eggs then was so bad that the majority were not even fit to be broken out as liquid, and the staff at two packing stations refused to handle them. Out of two consignments totalling 128 dozen eggs, it was possible to salvage only 17½ dozen as low grade liquid, the remainder being condemned for destruction by the local sanitary inspector. An officer of my Department visiting Mr. Whitson's premises, broke some of these eggs in his presence, and they contained dead embryo or were otherwise in various stages of decay. I am advised that Mr. Whitson has little experience of candling eggs. My Department did all they could to find an outlet 1455W for these eggs, but their efforts to help were not assisted by Mr. Whitson's practice of leaving his eggs in the incubator for 18 days before testing.