§ COLONEL SADLER (Middlesbrough)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, in view of the ever increasing expense of maintaining the various port sanitary authorities of the country, which now falls solely on the seaport local authorities, and having regard to the fact that inland towns and districts are also interested in the prevention of the importation 1343 of infectious diseases into the country, he will recommend that all or part of the expenditure thus incurred should become a national charge.
§ SIR M. HICKS BEACHMy right hon. friend has asked me to answer this question. This matter has been carefully considered on more than one occasion in recent years. His Majesty's Government see no sufficient reason for altering the decision that has been arrived at by previous Governments, or for relieving the outports from the duty that has always been incumbent on them of preventing, at an expense by no means large, the introduction of infectious diseases into the country.