§ MR. H. E. KEARLEY (Devonport)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that general dissatisfaction exists among the veterinary profession throughout the country in consequence of the suppression of the Veterinary Department as 528 originally constituted under the Board; whether protests from the profession and many leading agriculturists have been repeatedly made since the change; and whether, inasmuch as the Department is dependent upon the cordial assistance and co-operation of the veterinary profession in all parts of the country in order to successfully grapple with the various diseases to which the live stock of this country is liable, he will take steps to re-establish the Veterinary Department, under the responsible control and supervision of veterinary professors having the confidence of the profession generally?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. WALTER LONG,) Liverpool, West DerbyI am aware that the veterinary profession generally is in favour of the arrangement of business adopted prior to the retirement of Professor Brown at the end of the year 1893, but I cannot admit that the reorganisation which then took place can properly be described as the suppression of the Veterinary Department, or that any real ground for complaint exists with regard to the status assigned to our veterinary officers. As the hon. Member is aware, from the replies given to previous Questions put by him on this subject, the status of those officers is identical with that usually given to the professional advisers of public Departments; but I recognise that there has been some misunderstanding on the subject, and, as I am most anxious to give full expression to our indebtedness to the veterinary profession, I have arranged that the Veterinary Department shall be. given a separate place in the list of the Departments of the Board—subject, of course, to the condition that the status of the other officers concerned is not thereby affected.