§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture if he can explain upon what principle American cattle intended for slaughter at the port of debarkation may be landed at Liverpool or Glasgow and not at Belfast; and, whether, in the interest of Irish victuallers, he will undertake to modify the rules so that foreign cattle may be landed in Belfast?
§ *THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. WALTER LONG, Liverpool, West Derby)The matter to which the hon. Member refers is not within my own jurisdiction but within that of the Irish Privy Council. I answered a question respecting it on the 24th July last, and I shall be happy to hand the hon. Member a copy of the reply I then made.
§ MR. G. W. WOLFF (Belfast, E.)asked whether it was not the fact that the Irish authorities were not averse to these cattle landing at Belfast, but that the right hon. Gentleman had frightened them by saying that if a single case of 1512 disease occurred it would stop the importation of all Irish cattle into England?
§ *MR. LONGI am not prepared to reply on behalf of the Irish Department; but, as far as my action goes, all I did was to intimate to the Irish Government that if they ran the risk certain results might follow, and that if they did follow certain things would happen.