§ MR. CHANNING (Northamptonshire, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he now proposes to take any steps to give effect to the recommendations of the Commission on tuberculosis as regards what the Commission held to be the most important part of the inquiry, the elimination of the disease by the provision of guaranteed tuberculin, and the services of qualified veterinary surgeons gratuitously or otherwise; and whether, in any case, the Board of Agriculture will prepare and distribute a clear and concise statement of the method of elimination recommended by the Commission, and of the results of the adoption of this method in Denmark and other countries, and on certain estates in the United Kingdom.
* MR. LONGSince the hon. Member last called my attention to this matter, nothing has occurred which would suggest that there is any general desire on the part of agriculturists that the Government should gratuitously provide tuberculin and the services of a veterinary surgeon for the purpose of enabling stock owners to test their animals for tuber- 1291 culosis, and in these circumstances I could not fairly ask the Treasury to supply funds for the purpose. With regard to the issue of literature on the subject, I may remind the hon. Member that the Royal Agricultural Society recently gave extensive circulation to a very concise and practical leaflet, but I propose during the recess to bring up to date our information as to the methods of dealing with the disease, and the results obtained in Denmark and other countries, so as to enable me to determine whether we can usefully supplement the particulars already in the possession of agriculturists on the subject.