1912-13 41,529 Footnote 410: These are necessitous children only. This number includes the necessitous children in the Defective Schools, except the Cripple Schools, where the meals are provided by the Cripple Children's Dinners Committee. (See post, pp. 155-6.) Footnote 411: Annual Report of London County Council for 1911, Vol. IV., p. 33. The figures for the earlier years are not reliable owing to the multiplicity of agencies providing food. (d)--The Care Committee. In the selection of the children the County Council has throughout pursued the policy of keeping the numbers fed as low as possible. The School Doctor may recommend for meals, or more frequently for milk or codliver oil, under-nourished children whom he discovers in the course of medical inspection,[412] but the number of such cases is comparatively small. As a rule the children are selected by the teachers (either on their own initiative or, more frequently, on the application of the parents) on the ground of poverty. Footnote 412: The teachers are asked to point out to the school doctor any children about to be inspected whose names are on the necessitous register. (London County Council, Handbook containing general information with reference to Children's Care, 1912, p. 18.) The enquiry into the home circumstances of these children and the final decision as to which of them shall be fed, devolve upon the Care Committees. These Care Committees form the most striking feature of the administration of the Provision of Meals Act in London. In no other town have the services of the volunteer worker been utilised to such an extent.[413] As we have seen, the County Council decided in 1909 that a Children's Care Committee should be formed for every elementary school, and there is now practically no school for which a committee has not been appointed.[414] The committees consist of two or three of the School Managers, together with not less than four voluntary workers appointed by the Children's Care (Central) Sub-Committee.[415] The head teachers, though not members,[416] usually attend the meetings, and in some cases undertake a considerable amount of clerical work. The members of these committees number some 5,600,[417] but of these many take little or no part in the work, and the effective membership amounts perhaps to not more than two-thirds of this total. Footnote 413: For examples of Care Committees in provincial towns, see ante, pp. 65-66. In one or two Scottish towns also Care Committees have been formed (see post, pp. 240, 241, 244-5.) Footnote 414: In addition to the ordinary elementary schools, Care Committees have been formed also for the Special Schools for Defective Children, with the exception of the Physically Defective. Footnote 415: In a few cases the committees are composed entirely, or almost entirely, of working men. Footnote 416: