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Your Medical Officer wishes to place on record his appreciation and thanks for the assistance
given by all parties concerned in this matter, particularly the staff of the Pert of London Authority
in the West India Dock whose whole-hearted co-operation was greatly appreciated by your Worshipful
Committee's staff in this dock group who themselves worked all hours and over the
week-end in order to get the consignment sorted and cleared as quickly as possible.
A letter of appriciation was sent to the Superintendent of the West India Dock who replied
"Thank you for your letter of the 16th August, 1955. I will certainly convey your
sincere thanks to the staff concerned but I cannot let this opportunity pass
without also informing you that the assistance given by your Officers in this
matter was much appreciated in this Control. Our job is, as you know, to turn
ships round quickly and at one time it looked though No. 11 Shed would be
sterilised for two months or so. Your Officers gave speedy and generous attention
to the work in hand however, and their efforts certainly contributed to ours to get
the shed cleared quickly. As you know, this was done in just under a month".
No problem of this magnitude has arisen since 1938 when a vessel arrived from Australia with
a consignment of apples similarly affected save that in this instance the condition was found to
affect only one particular variety of apple, of which there were approximately 80,000 boxes on
board, and seemed to be confined to the apples carried in the lower holds, those in the 'tween
decks being unaffected, a fact which made it much easier to unload the vessel so that the good
apples were sorted from the bad at the time of unloading. In the recent instance, the involvement
of apples stowed throughout the vessel with a complete mixing up of all the varieties made the
problem of unloading and sorting infinitely more complex. Under these circumstances it was
probably the best solution to send the majority of the apples for cider making without any attempt
to sort the whole cargo.
RE-ORGANISATION OF MEAT INSPECTION IN THE ROYAL DOCKS
With the advent of the handing back of all imported meat by the Ministry of Food to private
importers it became apparent that the Port Health Authority must obviously take some part and
indeed have some say in any re-organisation, bearing in mind the important responsibilities
imposed on this Authority by the Public Health (Imported Food) Regulations, 1937/1948 and the
Public Health (Meat) Regulations 1924 (now being revised), in order to maintaih an efficient
service ensuring the adequate initial inspection and subsequent examination of all meats landed
in the Port of London.
To this end the arrangements for meat inspection in the Port of London* were reviewed under
three heads, as follows
(a) The organisation pre-war and up to 1940.
(b) The period 1940 to 1955.
(c) From 1955 on.
(a) The organisation pre-war and up to 1940
During the pre-war period and up to 1940, the Port Health Authority had, in the Royal Docks,
two whole-time Food Inspectors with the part-time assistance of one general duty Sanitary
Inspector.
These Inspectors visited each ship daily to observe the discharge of meat cargoes and to note
any abnormal conditions while at the same time contacting Importers' representatives at the ship
side, calling their attention to any unsatisfactory conditions and subsequently instructing the
Dock Authority to send to the Cold Stores any part of a consignment requiring reconditioning or
further detailed examination for disease by the Port Health Authority, the Inspector on the North
Sides of the Victoria Dock and Royal Albert Docks being responsible for glanding and supervision
of the reconditioning of unsound meat at the five Cold Stores (4 — Port of London Authority and
1 — Messrs. Swift & Co., Ltd.)
A quantity of meat requiring treatment was allowed to go out of the dock to various London
Cold Stores to be dealt with but none was allowdd to go to Provincial Stores.
The reconditioning in the Port of London Authority's Cold Stores within the docks was carried
out under the supervision of your Food Inspectors, the labour being provided by the Port of London
Authority from amongst the Cold Stores personnel who had had experience of that kind of work.
In addition the Port of London Authority provided a thawing-out shed with a labourer in attendance
where the glanding of tongues was carried out.
In addition to carrying out meat inspection the two officers concerned carried out general food
inspection and consequently only a limited time could be devoted to meat ships, their districts
covering several miles of quayage which had to be visited on foot. It may be open to question
in the light of modern knowledge whether the staff at that time was adequate to cope with all the
duties of meat inspection and whether they had, as a result, to place too much reliance on
assistance given to them by the staffs of the Dock Authority and of the Meat Importers.
(b) The period 1940 to 1955
About 1940 when the Ministry of Food took over the responsibility of importing meat and meat
products, three important organisations were set up in the Docks
* As most of the meat imported into the Port of London comes through the Royal Docks Group, the
greater part of the survey which follows refers to the work there.
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