From other parts of the House, including the Govern- ment
benches, there also came pleas for a vigorous exten- sion of milk distribution, notably to children under live and nursing mothers. Mr. Walter Elliot made the obvious rejoinder in his reply that there was a grave danger of the segregation of the classes in some of these proposals. " There was opposition," he reminded the House, " throughout the discussions on the Unemployment Bill to relief being given in kind." There was a general view, however, that this was only a debating answer. The distribution of milk at cheap rates to schoolchildren was in itself a radical departure from old-established practice, and its extension would violate no new principle. It was interesting to note that no Conservative raised the old argument of the pauperisation of the working classes. There was a widespread feeling in the Government ranks that an answer had to be given to the Socialist challenge that scarcity and glut were inevitable concomitants of the capitalist system and that the milk scheme was the first tentative effort of the Government to do so.
Previous page
