520 
PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
Germany, Holland, Russia, and the Eastern Provinces, were scheduled, not 
so much because the import of cattle reared in those countries was feared, 
but because it was apprehended that, through them, the disease might be 
brought from the steppes. The late war on the Continent necessitated an 
increase of restriction, as France and Germany, in consequence of the march 
of the armies, became violently infected. It was then determined to put 
France in the same position as Germany had stood in, and it was also 
ordered that German cattle should be slaughtered at the waterside ; and 
afterwards an order was issued entirely prohibiting the import from France 
and Belgium, which order had not yet been entirely relaxed. These orders 
could not have been issued unless the office had had a responsible depart- 
ment to give information as to the facts of the case ; and as the orders neces- 
sarily raised the price of food, nothing but a feeling of necessity induced the 
office to issue them. The war, as far as Germany was concerned, was now 
entirely over, and that circumstance had enabled the office to put Germany 
back again into the position in which it stood before the war. In the next 
place it was thought — and this he believed was the real cause of offence to 
his hon. friend — that the time had arrived when Dutch cattle might be safely 
introduced. Last year the import of Dutch cattle was somewhere about 
70,000 or 80,000, and of German cattle somewhere about 50,000 or 60,000, 
and for some time past there had been no cattle plague in Holland, the re- 
strictions to prevent its spreading in that countfy being well devised ; but 
as there was a danger that steppe cattle might come through Rotterdam, 
the Dutch Government were told, when they asked that the restrictions on 
the import of Dutch cattle into this country might be taken off, that there 
was risk in allowing cattle to be imported from Rotterdam, and the result 
was that the Dutch passed a law prohibiting the import of sheep and cattle 
into Holland, and promising to give notice before the law was changed. He 
did not deny that pleuro-pneumonia was a very fatal or infectious dis- 
ease, but it was nothing like so fatal or infectious as cattle plague. Still it 
was a very fatal disease. But pleuro-pneumonia was a known disease, and 
no restrictions we could put on Dutch eattle would prevent its existence in 
this country. It was a matter of dispute whether pleuro-pneumonia was or 
was not introduced from abroad, he only knew it was found here, and he 
thought it was too much to require that Dutch cattle should be excluded 
because in Holland, as in England, pleuro-pneumonia was to be found. No 
doubt there should be stringent regulations with regard to inspection, and 
that no animals should be allowed to be introduced into this country which 
came with pleuro-pneumonia. And what were the regulations ? The regu- 
lations with regard to pleuro-pneumonia were, that if in any ship coming 
from Holland, or any foreign country, there was any animal affected with 
the disease, not merely the animal should be killed, but the whole cargo 
should be slaughtered at once, and not allowed to go to the metropolitan 
market or into the interior. Foreign cattle, therefore, were liable to even 
more stringent regulations than home cattle. That was going as far as he 
thought they were justified in going. It was rather remarkable that soon 
after this order three cases of pleuro-pneumonia had occurred in two cargoes 
from Holland. The Dutch Government were immediately communicated 
with on the subject, and told they should take the greatest precautions to 
prevent the recurrence of such cases. They had taken the greatest possible 
precautions, and he believed they had been effectual. The regulations en- 
forced were of the most stringent character. No cattle were allowed to be 
shipped without previous examination by veterinary surgeons — to be con- 
ducted between sunrise and sunset. The General Steam Navigation Com- 
pany had also taken up the subject, and it was their interest to see that the 
regulations were strictly enforced ; for the trade in cattle between Holland 
