CO129-562-12 Dysentry epidemic- recommendation to enforce compulsory pasteurization of milk 7-6-1937 - 17-8-1937 — Page 65

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

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the better.

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be produced on the lines recommended in paragraph 177, so much But I should hope that a broad settlement could be effected between exchequer and local funds which would obviate the detailed recoveries suggested in paragraph 227; and I see no balance of advantage in bringing county funds into the provision and repay- ment of loans to farmers as suggested in paragraphs 224 and 228.

Where a local authority elects to make pasteurisation compulsory, frequent and minute inspection will be necessary to guard against the risk, never negligible, that a plant may become a public danger rather than a safeguard. The cost of this will depend on the number and size of the plants and cannot be here estimated; it will, of course, fall entirely on the local authority.

Such examination as we have given to the boiling of milk leaves me strongly impressed with its superiority over pasteurisation, in safety, simplicity, and economy, as a treatment for milk not of assured purity. The comparatively trivial disadvantages of its effects on the cream-line and on the taste of milk are a slender foundation for all the elaboration and expense of maintaining the laboratory standard (paragraph 163) necessary in commercial pasteurisation. Domestic boiling, no doubt, would be too often omitted or over- done; but if there is any convincing reason why, for the milk supply of the generality of the urban population, a wholesale boiling process immediately followed by cooling and bottling cannot be adopted, it has escaped me.

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(Signed) C. HARRIS.

Addendum by Major-General Sir John Moore.

Until the veterinary services can be expanded on a well-organised basis as recommended by the committee, I am of the opinion that veterinary surgeons in private practice in rural areas who, in ordinary circumstances, are employed by the farming community, should be made use of for the control of animal diseases. If they are not in possession of the Diploma of Veterinary State Medicine (D.V.S.M.), it might be arranged that they should undergo a refresher course at a veterinary college or, alternatively, at the laboratories proposed in the report (see paragraph 214 of report, and recommendation (15) in the summary of recommendations). Furthermore, as a good many existing veterinary practitioners have sons who are taking up a veterinary career, and following in their fathers' footsteps, preference might be extended to these young men on the understanding that they should obtain the D.V.S.M., a dual partnership of state and private practice thereby being established. It has to be remembered that the older practitioners are the more experienced in the control of animal diseases and in the necessary advice to farmers.

JOHN MOORE.

(Signed)

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APPENDIX 1.

Evidence received.

(a) List of witnesses who gave oral evidence.

Witness.

Mr. J. N. Beckett

Dr. T. Carnwath, D.S.O., M.B.

Mr. H. E. Dale, C.B.

Accompanied by-

Mr. P. J. L. Kelland, M.R.C.V.S.

Mr. D. A. E. Cabot

Mr. J. F. Blackshaw, O.B.E.

Mr. J. M. Vallance

Dr. G. R. Leighton, O.B.E., M.D.,

D.Sc.

Mr. T. Baxter, Chairman, Milk and

Dairy Produce Committee. Major R. H. Dorman-Smith, Vice- Chairman, Milk and Dairy Pro- duce Committee

Mr. F. E. Knight, Secretary, Milk

and Dairy Produce Committee Captain E. T. Morris, Chairman,

Livestock and Wool Committee Dr. R. A. Fisher, D.Sc., F.R.S. Dr. S. Bartlett

Sir Robert Greig, M.C.

Mr. F. W. Medlock

Professor J. C. G. Ledingham,

C.M.G., M.B., F.R.S.

Professor W. W. Jameson, M.D.,

F.R.C.P., D.P.H., Professor Public Health Professor G. S. Wilson,

F.R.C.P., D.P.H., Professor of Bacteriology as applied to Hygiene Mr. Ben Davies

M.D.,

Description of witness.

Assistant Secretary, Ministry of

Health.

Senior Medical Officer, Ministry of

Health.

Principal Assistant Secretary, Education and Research (Agri- culture and Horticulture Divi- sion), Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Chief Veterinary Officer, Ministry

of Agriculture and Fisheries. Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Dairying Commissioner, Ministry

of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Assistant Secretary, Department

of Health for Scotland. Medical Officer, Department of

Health for Scotland.

Representatives of the National

Farmers' Union.

Rothamsted Experimental Station. National Institute for Research in Dairying, University of Reading. Secretary, Department of Agricul-

ture for Scotland.

Chief Veterinary Officer, Surrey

County Council. Director, the Lister Institute of

Preventive Medicine.

The London School of Hygiene and

Tropical Medicine.

Joint Managing Director, United

Dairies, Limited.

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