§ MR. MACDONA (Southwark, Rotherhithe)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether cholera is now prevalent in Smyrna; and whether he is aware that one of the largest importers of rags in England has received a telegram, dated September 2, offering 800 bales of cotton rags to be delivered forthwith in Liverpool; and, if this be so, what steps the Government propose to take to prevent so serious a risk and danger to the lives of so largely a populated place as Liverpool?
§ MR. H. H. FOWLERI am aware that cholera is prevalent in Smyrna. The Medical Officer of Health of Liverpool has informed the Medical Department of the Local Government Board that no difficulty has arisen there in connection with the regulations as to the importation of rags packed in bales and imported as merchandise, and no difficulty is anticipated by him. The hon. Member, on September 1, asked me whether I was aware that there were lying in the wharves at London Bridge over 300 tons of rags imported from cholera-stricken places in Europe which the rag merchants in London refused to touch or take from the fear of introducing cholera. As I was unable to obtain any information which supported this statement in the question, the hon. Member subsequently informed me that the 300 tons of rags were then lying at Cotton's Wharf, London Bridge. An Inspector of the Local Government Board immediately visited that wharf; he found no rags there, and he was assured by the superintendent that there had not been any rags at the wharf which the merchants had refused to take.
§ MR. MACDONAasked whether it was true, as stated in The Globe of yesterday, that 400 bales of rags, weighing 200 tons, were despatched from St. Katherine's Dock, the destination of the greater part being Yorkshire, and thousands of tons of rags, which had been imported from Turkey and the Eastern ports of Europe were stored in the different docks and warehouses on the 463 Thames, and that these rags were in a foul and filthy condition?
§ MR. H. H. FOWLERI cannot answer for the accuracy of a newspaper paragraph. I have already explained that the importation of filthy and infected rags is absolutely prohibited. What were described at the recent Congress at Dresden as "rags of merchandise" which have been collected over a long series of years, packed by hydraulic pressure, bound round by iron bands, and having the name of the place of origin marked upon them, are held by medical authorities at home and abroad to be rags that ought not to be prohibited. Under these circumstances, acting upon the advice of the Medical Department of the Local Government Board, and with the full knowledge that by prohibiting the importation of these rags I should be putting a stop to many important industries and putting a large number of people out of employment, I have not felt justified in prohibiting the importation of these rags, and in acting in direct violation of the Resolutions that were passed by the Dresden Congress, and which were signed on behalf of Her Majesty's Government. It is the opinion of the Government that no risk or danger will be incurred through the importation of these rags of merchandise.