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8
raising the maximum price of milk might result in a number of
expectant and nursing mothers and young children being precluded,
through lack of means, from obtaining a supply of milk adequate
to their needs, the Milk Order of 1919 of the Food Controller
empowered local authorities to provide milk to those whom the
person authorised by them certified such provision to be necessary.
Two years later this Order was revoked as the Minister had decided
that many local authorities were incurring expenditure greatly in
excess of what was considered necessary or desirable for the purpose
in view, and in place of the powers withdrawn the Minister laid
down conditions under which milk should be granted, limiting the
class of person entitled to benefit and the amount permitted to be
given. Grants of milk at less than cost price could be given only
where the medical officer of health or, in certain cases, the medical
officer of the centre, was satisfied that a supply was necessary on
grounds of health. For years most local authorities granted milk
at reduced rates subject to these conditions, though, in point of
fact, apart from those cases where a special recommendation was
required in order that the recipient could have more than the usual
amount, the only criterion on which milk grants have been made
has been a financial one, that is, whether or not the income of the
family was less than a certain figure which varied, usually, with
the number of the family, though the recommendation was actually
made by the medical officer of the clinic. This very general practice
had the advantage that it resulted in the attendance at the clinics
of certain persons who otherwise, perhaps, would not have come,
persons whose infants needed the supervision of the health visitor
and the medical officer. Local authorities in making grants of milk
have had regard to the safety of that supplied. Although not
many have given the graded milks, many have been able to arrange
for the supply of pasteurised milk and so have been in a position
to assure themselves that the milk was safe. In 1934 the Milk in
Schools scheme came into operation. This, ostensibly a health
measure, as the grant could be made on medical grounds, was a
measure designed primarily in the interests of the milk trade.
Subsequently, in some quarters, efforts were made to obtain benefits
for the child under five similar to those now obtainable for school
children, and in August, 1939, the Minister of Health started such
a scheme by which local authorities were to obtain milk for maternity
and child welfare purposes at a reduced rate. In the application
of this scheme, however, there was no assurance of the safety of the
milk supply in that the Ministry would not permit the local authority
to insist on the milk being pasteurised (a concession, no doubt, to
the milk trade, some of whose members seem to deem themselves
competent to decide on matters such as the safety of milk and some
of whom seem actively opposed to the pasteurising of milk), nor
would they, in this district at least, agree to the local authority
insisting that the issue should be made only to those attending the