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Acts and the large number of witnesses examined by that
Committee.
"Various recommendations were made by the Committee
and it was naturally anticipated that the Bill introduced
last session by Mr. Chaplin and Mr. T. W. Russell (the
latter having been Chairman of the Select Committee),
would give effect at any rate to the most important of
those recommendations.
"To the great disappointment of all parties interested
in the question, the most important of these recommendations
finds no place in the Bill.
"This has been most clearly pointed out by the Council
of the Society of Public Analysts, whose report was laid
before you in February.
"With this report I must heartily agree.
"Leaving out minor defects in Mr. Chaplin's Bill, I will
refer to one or two matters of the greatest importance.
"1. The Court of Reference especially recommended by
the Select Committee, whose functions would include the
fixing of standards of purity and the settlement of disputed
points, such as the harmfulness or otherwise of the "addition
of preservatives, colouring matters, Ac. to articles of food,
is not even referred to in the now Bill, and consequently
the Somerset House (Inland Revenue) chemists remain,
as before, referees in cases of dispute.
"This omission alone is sufficient to render the Bill
practically valueless.
"I need not, I am sure, refer to the frequent disputes
which have occurred between Public Analysts and the
Somerset House referees to prove how necessary a properly
constituted Court of Reference (such as the Select Committee
recommended) has become.
"Take, for instanca, the question of copper in preserved .
peas. Had the proposed Court of Reference been in
existence the question of how much copper per pound in an
article of food such as preserved peas is sufficient to render
the article injurious to health would have been settled by
the Court of Reference, and the heavy expense of thrashing
the matter out in a Police-court or Court of Appeal would
not have been incurred.
"I understand that the Trade are just as much in favour