§ SIR JOHN KINLOCH (Perth, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he has had time to consider the recent communication from the Canadian Government on the subject of the cattle trade; whether he has forwarded any reply to it; and whether he will lay the documents upon the Table of the House?
§ DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)at the same time asked whether there was any chance of the Canadian cattle traffic being restored this year?
§ *MR. HERBERT GARDNERI have fully considered the communication to which my hon. Friend refers, but it does not seem to me to do much more than 280 restate the views previously expressed by the Dominion Authorities. Moreover, since it was written, the Belgian Government have also discovered cases of pleuro-pneumonia amongst cattle brought from Canada—a fact which, in view of the admitted eminence and experience of the Belgian veterinary experts, affords an important corroboration of the opinion of my own advisers. I am endeavouring to obtain through the Foreign Office further information with regard to the Belgian cases, and on its receipt I shall be able to determine whether any detailed reply on my part is necessary beyond the formal one already sent. Later on it may be desirable that further Papers should be laid on the Table; but it would, I think, be inconvenient that I should do so at the present stage of the correspondence.