Parents who could feed their children and would not should "simply be summoned for 'cruelty.'"[74] Footnote 66: London School Board, Report of General Purposes Committee on Underfed Children, 1899, p. ii., par. 1. Footnote 67: _Ibid._, p. vi., par. 29. Footnote 68: _Ibid._, p. iii., pars. 11, 12. Footnote 69: _Ibid._, p. v., par. 25. "School dinners well managed may be made to have an admirable educative effect.... This makes me think that a proper part of the business of the School should be a common mid-day meal." (Evidence of Mrs. Despard, _ibid._, p. 3.) Mrs. Burgwin was of the same opinion. (_Ibid._, p. 14.) Footnote 70: See, for instance, the suggestions made by Mr. Whiteley (_ibid._, p. ix.), and the evidence of Mrs. Burgwin and Mr. J. Morant (_ibid._, pp. 14, 15). Footnote 71: _Ibid._, p. iv., par. 20. Footnote 72: _Ibid._, p. iv., par. 17. Footnote 73: _Ibid._, p. iv., par. 19. Footnote 74: _Ibid._, p. v., par. 21. The majority of the committee declared themselves convinced "by the consideration of the subject, and by the special information now obtained from Paris and from other foreign countries,[75] that the whole question of the feeding and health of children compulsorily attending school requires to be dealt with as a matter of public concern."[76] They therefore recommended that a Central Committee should be formed, which should be authorised to call for reports and general assistance from the Board's staff, facilities being granted for the use of rooms at the schools for meals, and they made the following important statement of principle:--"It should be deemed to be part of the duty of any authority by law responsible for the compulsory attendance of children at school to ascertain what children, if any, come to school in a state unfit to get normal profit by the school work--whether by reason of underfeeding, physical disability or otherwise--and there should be the necessary inspection for that purpose; that where it is ascertained that children are sent to school 'underfed' ... it should be part of the duty of the authority to see that they are provided, under proper conditions, with the necessary food;" that "the authority should co-operate in any existing or future voluntary efforts to that end," and that, "in so far as such voluntary efforts fail to cover the ground, the authority should have the power and the duty to supplement them." Where dinners were provided, it was desirable that they should be open to all children, and that the parents should pay for them, unless they were unable by misfortune to find the money, and that no distinction should be made between the paying and the non-paying children. If the underfed condition of the child was due to the culpable neglect of the parent, the Board should prosecute the parent, and, if the offence was persisted in, should have power to deal with the child under the Industrial Schools Acts.[77] Footnote 75: