706 



Importation of Canadian Store Cattle. 



[Nov., 



Lord Lee, in reply, reminded the deputation that there was 

 very far from being agreement on this important question 

 amongst the societies and interests concerned, in Scotland as 

 well as in England and Wales. There had been, however, 

 no political representations of any sort or kind, the issue being 

 decided purely on its merits as it affected the interests of the 

 country, and particularly the agricultural interest. It would, 

 admittedly, be wrong to take advantage of legislation, passed 

 to protect the flocks and herds of this country against disease, 

 for fiscal or other purposes at other times, but the statement 

 that the position as regards disease had now entirely changed 

 could not be accepted m view of the facts. While there was no 

 specific charge against Canadian cattle, the record of which 

 was one of the cleanest in the whole world, yet the incidence of 

 the various diseases was so obscure, their vagaries so infinite 

 and surrounded with mystery in every shape and form, that it 

 was not possible to import live stock from any quaiter of the 

 globe without, at the same time, incurring a certain definite 

 risk of disease. The recent outbreak of rinderpest in Belgium 

 uas a case in point, due to live cattle from America in transit, 

 and actually at the docks at Antwerp, coming into contact with 

 a cargo of Zebu cattle passing from India to the Argentine. 

 So far as foot-and-mouth disease in this country was con- 

 cerned, a scientific inquiry of the most thorough kind had been 

 recently set on foot by the ]\[inistry to endeavour to discover 

 the real nature of this disease and its means of communication. 



^leanwhile, among those who held the opposite view to that 

 of the deputation, there was the strongest possible feeling that 

 the only real protection that we had at present was our insular 

 position and the maintenance of the isolation it afforded. The 

 permission given by the Department some time ago for the 

 importation of certain exceptional Friesian cattle from Canada 

 did not Dear on the main question. In that case the conditions 

 imposed, including prolonged quarantine, were not only so 

 severe that no cattle had yet come in, but they were such as 

 would make the proposal to import store cattle economically 

 impossible and even ridiculous if a similar procedure were 

 applied. 



Mr. Esslemont had urged that, owin^ to the increased acre- 

 age under crop, it was essential that there should be more 

 stores. The facts, however, were that, owing to existing 

 labour conditions, the arable acreage was rapidly shrinking in 

 Scotland as well as in England, and the v\'ar-time increase 



