HC Deb 01 June 1893 vol 12 cc1728-9
COLONEL LOCKWOOD (Essex, Epping)

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to a statement, published in The Pioneer Mail, of Allahabad, that M. Pasteur has expressed, through the Secretary of State, his willingness to send out one of his experts, with the object of introducing vaccine for the prevention or mitigation of anthrax into India; whether he is aware that Pasteur's vaccine for anthrax has been officially declared, in a Report of the Local Government Board of London, "perfectly ineffective" for the purpose proposed; and whether it is true, as stated in The Times of India, that two animals have been "flayed alive" before a public audience in Calcutta; and, if so, whether there are any means of restraining such proceedings in future?

*THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. GEORGE RUSSELL,) North Beds

Yes, Sir; M. Pasteur's offer to send out a qualified investigator has been accepted by the Government of India. The Secretary of State cannot trace the words quoted by the hon. Member from a Report of the Local Government Board. As to the alleged flaying alive of animals, the Secretary of State has no information, nor has he been able to find a statement quoted in The Times of India. The attention of the Government of India was called last Autumn to the desirability of legislating on the lines of the English Act of 1876 for restricting experiments on living animals.

COLONEL LOCKWOOD

Will further inquiry be made with respect to the flaying alive?

MR. GEORGE RUSSELL

Yes, Sir.

SIR H. ROSCOE (Manchester, S.)

I wish to ask the Secretary to the Local Government Board a question of which I have given him private notice. It is whether it is not a fact that the Report referred to in the question is 11 years old; that since that time Pasteur's system of inoculation against anthrax has been so much improved that many thousands of animals have been successfully inoculated in France and other countries, with the result that the cattle plague is now rapidly disappearing from places where it had been prevalent for years?

THE SECRETARY TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Sir W. FOSTER,) Derby, Ilkeston

The Report in question is, I believe, 11 years old. As representing the Local Government Board, I have no official knowledge of the statements made by the hon. Member; but I believe, from personal inquiry, that they are correct.