§ MAJOR RASCH (Essex, Chelmsford)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to a case at the 61 petty sessional court, Grays, Essex, in which Inspector Buckingham stated that a horse suffering badly from canker and with large sores had been sold and sent to Rotterdam for sausage meat, to be subsequently re-imported to England; and whether he can impose some limit on this description of traffic.
§ * MR. RITCHIEFrom inquiry which I have caused to be made it appears to be true that a horse with canker in the foot and some sore places in the skin caused by harness was shipped to Rotterdam a few days ago. But I find no evidence that the carcase would afterwards be prepared for human food, or that, if it were, it would be re-imported to England. Nor have I any power to check the traffic indicated in the question.