HC Deb 01 March 1900 vol 79 cc1434-5
MR. STEVENSON () Suffolk, Eye

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is now prepared to frame regulations for the purpose of meeting the case of small farmers and others who may require, as a matter of urgency, to send a cow to a neighbouring farm and back for stock purposes.

The following questions also appeared on the Paper—

MR. STEVENSON

To ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is now able to make any further modification with respect to the restrictions contained in the Order of the 22nd inst., with special reference to the wide dimensions of the scheduled area; and whether he will exclude altogether from the operation of the Order the petty sessional divisions which are farthest removed from the scene of the outbreak, and which have shown an immunity from disease.

MR. E. W. WILSON () Norfolk. Mid

To ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, in consideration of the loss arising to the farmers of Norfolk and Suffolk through their inability to sell their fat cattle, and in the absence of any fresh outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in the scheduled district, he is able to remove or greatly relax the present restrictive orders.

*THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. LONG,) Liverpool, West Derby

In reply to the questions on this subject which the hon. Member and the hon. Member for Mid Norfolk have placed upon the Paper, I would say that the possibility of further modifying the existing restrictions in the directions suggested is being kept under consideration, but I am not able at the moment to announce any further measure of relief.

The position is, however, much more satisfactory than it was, and I am hopeful that we may be able gradually to relax our Orders both in Bedfordshire and East Anglia with the knowledge that, notwithstanding the serious loss and inconvenience occasioned locally, they have prevented the disease from becoming epidemic through the country.

MR. PRICE () Norfolk, E.

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, as currently reported in Norfolk, a second outbreak of foot and mouth disease took place on the farm at Fritton, where the cattle first infected by the disease were not promptly slaughtered?

*MR. LONG

No, Sir; we have no reason whatever to suppose that any extension of foot and mouth disease has taken place in consequence of the decision that it would be safer to isolate and not to slaughter the animals affected at Fritton. I may take this opportunity of saying that that decision was based, not, as has been suggested, on financial grounds, but upon purely practical and scientific considerations.