MR. EDWARD STANLEY (Lancashire, S. E., West Houghton)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, having regard to tire fact that pleuro-pneumonia has been so successfully dealt with and so largely diminished under the Act of 1890, he has any intention of introducing a Bill to enable the Board of Agriculture to deal with swine fever in the same manner?
§ MR. GARDNERThe conditions under which swine fever is contracted and spread are not identical with those which exist in the case of pleuro-pneumonia, and any measure for effectively dealing therewith would necessarily differ in several important respects from the Act to which the hon. Member refers. I am, however, very anxious to ascertain whether any more effective measures can be adopted for the prevention and extirpation of this disease, and I have accordingly arranged for the appointment of a Departmental Committee to consider the whole subject. Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice has consented to act as Chairman of that Committee, and I hope that the inquiry will not be a very long one.