Nutrition.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 23 March 1939.

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Photo of Mr Henry White Mr Henry White , Birkenhead East

I am in entire agreement with the right hon. Member for Keighley (Mr. Lees-Smith) as to the desirability of trying to look at this matter from a new perspective. The inquiries which have been directed to the subject of nutrition not only in this country but through the agency of the League of Nations and the International Labour Office, into the subject of the nutrition of workers, have made available a great fund of information and I feel that we are now able to pass from the realm of investigation and discussion into the field of action. What that action should be, its size and scope, is a matter which can be determined by Parliament at any time. I remember reading a valuable document on the policy of nutrition in which it was pointed out that if the problem is to be solved it might be solved immediately, because there is nothing in our knowledge of the problem to suggest that it will be more easily solved in two years' time, in ten years' or in 50 years' time. While there are at the present time many difficulties in the way of vast scale operations in the field of nutrition there are nevertheless fields in which it is necessary that this problem should be attacked.

My mind goes back to an important discussion in this House in June of last year, when the right hon. Member for Sparkbrook (Mr. Amery) made a powerful plea for the institution of family allowances, which he said would deal with the problem at the most vital point. Without question, it is the children and the families with the largest number of children who are called upon to bear the incidence of malnutrition in its most severe and devastating form. There is no question about that. The right hon.

Member for Keighley has referred to an investigation in Liverpool. There was another investigation into the Merseyside conditions, and it was found that something like 25 per cent. of the children were suffering from malnutrition. A similar investigation was undertaken in Bristol, and showed that one child in every five, in the year 1937, a year of relative prosperity, was living in a home in which it was impossible for it to have a fair start in life. If we are looking for an immediate point of attack on this great problem it is undoubtedly in the direction of bringing relief to the children who are suffering most.

I do not wish to minimise what has been done already. The figures which have been produced as to the number of children getting free milk and school meals and for other selected portions of the population, show that a great deal of progressive work is still going on, but we must remember that at best this is a negative policy as it deals with selected people and groups of the population, and is always liable to interruption by school holidays and the like. We must have a policy which will ultimately create a condition in which malnutrition will be substantially impossible. That is the object at which we should all aim. Although there have been many inquiries into this subject I think there are possibly two things on which further inquiry would be valuable. One is an investigation embracing a census of production, because many of our efforts have undoubtedly been frittered away by ineffective or extravagant means of distribution which have kept prices at a level beyond the reach of many people.

It would be most illuminating if we could have an inquiry into the possible costs of the result of malnutrition. By that I mean a medical survey of the illnesses, diseases, and physical disabilities which are directly traceable to poverty and malnutrition. If such a calculation could be made, for what it is worth, it would focus the attention of the whole nation and perhaps enable us more quickly than anything else to look at the matter from a new perspective. In that direction we might well have inquiries made. I should like to see an attempt made not always to relate this problem to the minimum British Medical Association or any other minimum scale. I should like to see somebody make it its business to draw up what are considered proper scales of consumption—I mean not only for food but with regard to houses and clothes—reasonable and proper standards. Those are the standards, and not a minimum standard, to which we should direct out continuous efforts. That seems a better method of approach.

I should like to come back to one of my own cranks, if that is the way to describe them, and that is to appeal for the removal from the field of nutrition, as indeed from every other field of activity in the social services, of some of the administrative difficulties which stand in the way of the effective carrying out of the purposes of Parliament. It is a very important matter indeed that there should be a clear definition of the statutory functions of local education committees and the operations of the Unemployment Assistance Board. We had an inquiry on the Merseyside and we found that one in five of the members of the Board was in touch either with an education committee or with some other agency which had statutory functions to perform running concurrently with those of the Board. If there is a job to be done in giving effective assistance to the poor and helping those who are below the poverty line, the worst way in which you can do it is to let two authorities have concurrent powers and duties in the performance of the task.

If my hon. Friend will give attention to that matter he will be taking a step forward in seeing that the intentions of Parliament are effectively carried out. I know one district where there are 12 or 15 different authorities acting through the Education Department and other Departments, all charged with the duty of providing—and they do provide—meals for children, milk for children and expectant mothers, and other services of that kind. It hardly seems credible that it should be so, but I think that if there are 12 or 15 different authorities there are probably 15 different methods by which that help is given. I only need to state that to show what a cumbersome and an unfortunate method that is of dealing with this problem. Do not let us have too many cooks. Whatever else we do, it is at least possible for us to see that what we are doing is carried out in the most efficient and effective way.

I am tempted to refer to the major dilemma created by the fact that in the case of a very large number of applications for allowances, in probably 50 per cent. where there are more than three children in the family, the allowances approach very closely to the wages that they would normally earn if they were in employment. In the case of larger families there is a definite wages stop, which means that, although the Board is charged with the duty of giving assistance in meeting the needs, with the exception of the medical needs, of these families, there is a considerable number for which it is quite impossible for it to do that. That is a dilemma which can only be resolved by Parliament. As long as we have that dilemma it is impossible to avoid serious malnutrition in a large number of homes. There is a matter which Parliament might well decide to investigate and deal with. Lord Rushcliffe has asked for an investigation into the matter, and Sir William Beveridge, the chairman of the Statutory Committee under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, has associated himself with the request, and yet nothing is done. Perhaps it would more properly come under the Ministry of Labour, and I should be grateful if my hon. Friend would draw the attention of his colleague to this aspect of this very important matter in connection with nutrition.

In any house where the average wage is 10s. or less per head it is safe to assume that the children are suffering, and those who make these calculations with regard to food scales are apt to overlook the fact that the question of receipts per head does not apply only to food. Especially in the case of larger families it applies to everything that goes on in the house, such as the number of rooms and the amount of clothes. One unfortunate man said to me, "You have no idea how quickly the bed-clothes wear out when you have four children in the bed." The wastage of crockery and everything of that kind is multiplied to an enormous extent in these houses. We are living in serious times and we have many grave preoccupations, but this matter is a fundamental problem in these days when there is very great abundance in the world.