PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
701 
charge d’affaires, in which he informed him that he had received a 
telegram from Berlin, stating that steps were about to be taken by 
the Senate at Lubeck to prohibit the import and transit of Russian 
cattle, hides, &c. The last question was an important one, and was 
occupying his close and constant attention, but he could not give 
any definite answer. On the one hand, he did not deny that there 
appeared to be danger on account of the neighbourhood of Ham¬ 
burg to Schleswig Holstein ; but, on the other, they must remember 
the high price of meat, and not allow themselves, through any 
unreasonable fear, to increase that price. (Hear, hear.) It was a 
most serious matter to interfere with the importation from Schleswig- 
Holstein at that moment. He found that during the last three 
weeks the number of cattle imported into Great Britain from Germany 
was 5103, of which 3576 came from Schleswig-Holstein, and were 
brought to the port of London. The import would be very 
seriously affected by the cancelling of the order to which the hon. 
member referred. It would not be done unless it were necessary, 
but in that case it must be done. He would just inform the House 
what the conditions of that importation were. Before the Order in 
Council was issued no cattle could be imported from any part of 
Germany without being slaughtered at the port of landing; 
Schleswig-Holstein bad, so far as they knew, always been safe from 
the cattle plague ; and there was a strong desire that cattle should 
be imported, which appeared to have been thus far remarkably 
healthy. For a long time the Government refused to allow the 
import of Schleswig-Holstein cattle, unless they were secured 
against getting no others; and the security afforded was that the 
importer was under a bond of £1000 not to import any other cattle, 
and that there was a Government certificate stating that the vessel 
had not within three months had on board any cattle from any part 
of the German Empire other than Schleswig-Holstein, or from any 
scheduled country, and had not entered any of the scheduled ports, 
and that none of the cattle imported had come in contact with 
cattle open to that objection. That, he conceived, constituted suffi¬ 
cient security except for the danger arising from the proximity of 
Schleswig-Holstein to Hamburg. For many months Lord Ripon 
and himself had very strong pressure put upon them to admit all 
cattle that came from Germany into the interior of this country, and 
he trusted that those persons, both in the House and out of it, who 
pressed for that relaxation would see that if their wish had been 
acceded to, it would have been very difficult to prevent the cattle 
plague from being spread all over the country. (Hear.) 
In reply to Lord Elcho, 
Mr. Forster said it was difficult to explain how it was the car¬ 
cases of cattle hacfgot into the sea near Leith. On the previous 
evening he saw Professor Brown, who had just returned from the 
north, and though that gentleman agreed with him that such a 
thing ought not to have occurred, he also satisfied him that such 
precautions were taken for secure burial that there was not much 
cause for apprehension with regard to the carcases in question. 
