HC Deb 13 March 1885 vol 295 cc1066-7
MR. ARTHUR ARNOLD

asked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Whether his attention has been called to a statement reported, in the Evening Standard of the 3rd instant, to have been made by the Earl of Suffolk, the Chairman at a Council Meeting of the Central and Associated Chambers of Agriculture, as to the recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Norfolk, in the following terms:— No disease had existed in the district before, and there was evidence which justified them in believing that the pig, while in London, had taken the infection from the diseased sheep brought from Germany; and, whether it is a fact that the pig referred to was taken to Swaffham on 12th January, and that the first cargo of sheep from Germany, in which the disease appeared, arrived on 11th February?

MR. TREVELYAN

The pig referred to was taken to Swaffham on the 12th of January. The first cargo of sheep from Germany in which one sheep was found to be affected with foot-and-mouth disease was landed at Deptford on February 11. As a matter of fact, the pig never came nearer London than Clapham Junction. It appears, from a full report of Lord Suffolk's speech, that his Lordship acquitted the pig of the charge of having contracted the disease from a German source.

MR. CHAPLIN

asked whether, between the passing of the Act of last year and February 11, during which time animals were continually imported from Germany, the disease did not exist in Germany?

MR. TEEVELYAN

It is impossible to say that disease did not exist in Germany during the period referred to; but out of 500,000 sheep introduced from Germany in the course of 12 months only two of them were known to have been affected by foot-and-mouth disease.

MR. CHAPLIN

Do I understand that the disease prevails at the present moment in Germany?

MR. TEEVELYAN

It prevails at the present moment in Germany—that is to say, it exists.