§ MR. CHAPLIN (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture, in view of the fact that a Canadian animal landed at Dept-ford on the 22nd of September was pro-nounced by the experts of the Board to be affected with contagious pleuro-pneu-monia, if he still proposes to admit Canadian cattle into the country without being subject to slaughter at the port at the close of the further special examination which he has announced, if between that date and the present time no further cases of disease are discovered in cattle imported from Canada; within what period after a case of disease has been detected in animals arriving from any given country he considers that animals coming from the same country can be 1155 admitted with exemption from slaughter without exposing cattle in this country to the risk of contagious disease; and whether he contemplates that the examination in question will be completed before the expiry of the month of June?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. H. GARDNER, Essex, Saffron Walden)I had, of course, given the fullest consideration to the fact to which the right hon. Member refers before making my recent statement on this subject, and, as I stated the other day, nothing has since occurred which leads me to modify that statement. It would be most undesirable that I should specify any particular period as being in all cases long enough after a case of disease has been detected to allow free importation to be resumed with the reasonable security required by the Statute. The length of time which has elapsed since the detection of disease is an important, but by no means the only, factor which it is my duty to take into account. I do not at present contemplate that the examination will be concluded before the date mentioned by the right hon. Gentleman.