CO129-562-12 Dysentry epidemic- recommendation to enforce compulsory pasteurization of milk 7-6-1937 - 17-8-1937 — Page 96

Enclosure No. 2.

17/

With reference to the question of compulsory

pasteurization of milk:-

1. Has Government's attention been drawn to a debate which

took place in the House of Lords on April 27th, as reported by 'The Times' of April 28th, 1937, on the Poole Corporation Bill, which originally contained a clause relating to pasteurization of milk, and in particular to the following observations:-

(Lord Cranworth) "It was admitted

that the real

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reason for including this clause in the Bill was the recent

outbreak of typhoid fever at Bournemouth. This appeared to be panic legislation

There might be a case for

prohibiting the sale of unclean milk unless it had been

pasteurized, but there was an equally good case for saying

that if clean milk was available it should not be

pasteurized at all. It was nowadays easier to get

pasteurized milk than non-pasteurized milk."

Viscount Hallifax) "He agreed that the health of the

people must be the first and the last consideration and

that the question of vested interests did not arise. But

in matters of this sort they must be none the less concerned

to see that measures designed to promote health were wisely devised. In 1934 the Economic Advisory Council's Committee

on Cattle Diseases, presided over by Sir Frederick Hopkins, referred to this subject of pasteurization in its report

The Government had reviewed the whole matter, and

he was authorized to announce that it was their intention

to bring forward long-term legislation dealing with milk

policy generally in the near future. In this connection the Government would examine the question of pasteurization in the light of all the evidence that was available with a view to deciding whether or not it would be in the public

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