Volume 1

First report / Committee on Nutrition in the Colonial Empire.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Nutrition in the Colonial Empire.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report / Committee on Nutrition in the Colonial Empire. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/382
    FOREWORD BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE . | COLONIES. One of the most far-reaching of recent political developments has been the steady broadening of the foundations of social policy and the extension over an ever wider sphere of the re- sponsibilities of Government. A significant example of this can be found in the subject of this report, the problem of nutrition. It is only within the last few years that the importance of this question has begun to be fully appreciated and that it has entered people’s heads that Governments should seriously and actively concern themselves about it. While Mr. J. H. Thomas was Secretary of State for the Colonies he sent a circular despatch to all Colonial Governors drawing their attention to the subject and asking them to sub- mit reports upon the standards of nutrition in their territories. Their replies provided a mass of very interesting and valuable information. It was accordingly decided to appoint a Com- mittee of the Economic Advisory Council which would first of all consider these replies and make recommendations, and would _ thereafter remain in being to advise on nutritional matters. I feel sure that it will be generally agreed that the report which the Committee have now presented is a most useful docu- ment, of all the greater value because of the full summary of information which they have provided in Part II as the back- ground against which the conclusions of Part I should be read and judged. The fact that Colonial Governments have already ordered over four thousand copies of the Report indicates impressively the importance which they attach to it, and the wide distribution which they contemplate. I hope that it will also be studied by employers of labour in the Colonial Empire, by missionaries and by all others interested in the welfare of its people. The question of nutrition should affect a great many aspects of Colonial policy, and the Committee have attempted with a large degree of success to cover all these aspects and to reach conclusions which will assist Colonial Governments to take practical steps to improve nutrition. In a report which deals with such a large variety of Dependencies many of the con- clusions are naturally of a general character. It will be for each Colonial Government to consider the particular application of the many ideas and recommendations in the report to its own territories, and I am requesting Colonial Governors to keep me informed of the action taken. His Majesty’s Government are deeply indebted to the mem- bers of the Committee for the preparation of a report which will, I am confident, do much to promote wise policies and improved standards of nutrition in the Colonial Empire. MatcotmM MAcDONALD.