Report of Chief Inspector for the Southern Division for 1911, p. 27.
First Report on Medical Inspection of School Children in Scotland, by Dr. Leslie Mackenzie, 1913, p. 51.
"The Diet of Country Elementary School Children," by Dr. Gordon A. Lang, in _Rearing an Imperial Race_, edited by C. E. Hecht, 1913, p. 116.
Report of Chief Inspector for Northern Division for 1906.
But even where it is the rule to find cocoa or soup supplied, it is inadequate for the wants of many of the children, who require a more substantial and nourishing midday meal. Moreover, the provision appears as a rule to be confined to the winter months, a limitation patently absurd, since the _raison d'être_ of the meals is not so much the poverty of the parents, a condition which may fluctuate according to the seasons, but the fact that the distances are, in many cases, too great to allow the children time to return home at midday--which condition is, of course, constant the whole year round.
APPENDIX III THE PROVISION OF MEALS ABROAD
We have not been able to make any original enquiry into the systems of school feeding existing in other countries. The following history of the "Cantines Scolaires" in Paris and brief notes as to the provision made in other foreign towns may, however, be useful for purposes of reference, and as showing how widespread has been the movement for the feeding of school children. The information as to foreign towns other than Paris is derived mainly from _Prize Essays on Feeding School Children_, 1890; _Report of London School Board on Underfed Children attending School_, 1899, Appendix ix., pp. 255-272; _Feeding of School Children in Continental and American Cities_ (Cd. 2926), 1906; _The Free Feeding of School Children_, a reprint of the reports by the Special Sanitary Commissioner of the _Lancet_, 2nd edition, 1907; while fuller and more recent information is to be found in _School Feeding, its Practice at Home and Abroad_, by Louise S. Bryant, 1913.
Paris has long offered to other cities an inspiring example of an efficient and uniform system for feeding poor school children. She was the first to make systematic provision on a large scale. She had a basis of organisation ready to her hand in the _Caisses des Ecoles_. These bodies correspond in some degree to the English Care Committees, though with a far wider sphere of action. The original object of these school funds was to encourage school attendance by rewards to industrious pupils and help to the needy. The first _Caisse_ was established in 1849 by the National Guard in the second _arrondissement_, and gradually the system spread. In 1867 a law was passed encouraging the formation of _Caisses_ in every _commune_, and directing that their revenues were to consist of voluntary subscriptions and subventions by the commune, department or state.[584] This law was merely permissive, but in 1882, by the Compulsory Education Law, the establishment of these organisations was made obligatory.[585] A _Caisse_ was accordingly set up in each of the twenty _arrondissements_ of Paris. Attendance at school being now compulsory, and it being therefore no longer so necessary to provide incentives to attendance, the _Caisses_, though they still continued to grant prizes, turned their attention more and more to the physical needs of the children, boots, clothing, food, country holidays and, later, crèches, Savings Banks, skilled apprenticeship and medical treatment. The _Caisse_ was a voluntary body, but was officially recognised by the municipality. The General Committee was composed of the Mayor, the members of the Municipal Council, and the school inspector for the district, together with from twenty to twenty-four persons elected by the subscribers.[586]