§ MR. ANDERSONasked the Vice President of the Council, If he can state the 493 numbers of Austrian cattle that have been passed through Spain in order to reach England, and when and by what conveyance the importation took place; and, if the information be official, if he would lay it before the House in a Return?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONSir, statements have been made, by persons concerned in the trade, to the effect that cattle from Russia and Austria have been sent to Spain, to be shipped thence to England; but we have no official information as to the numbers so moved as enables us to contradict or admit them. I may add that an Order was issued in 1872 by the Spanish Government prohibiting the landing of cattle from Austria during the prevalence of cattle plague, which proves the existence of a traffic such as that alluded to by the hon. Gentleman. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Bradford (Mr. Forster) asked me a Question the other day, which I asked him to repeat, and which, with the permission of the House, I will now answer—namely, Whether the same steps have been taken with a cargo of animals belonging to English owners, among whom foot-and-mouth disease had appeared, since they were landed in this country, as are taken with other cargoes of foreign animals in a similar condition? I find that the regulations under which the animals in question are now in quarantine are identical with those passed and administered by the right hon. Gentleman when in Office, by which the importers of animals from scheduled countries have the option of sending them either to slaughter at the port of embarkation, or to quarantine in the place specified by the Privy Council.