§ CAPTAIN ELLICEI beg to ask the hon. Member for North Huntingdonshire, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether, in view of the fact that in the city of Glasgow slaughterhouses, out of 46,784 home-bred cattle slaughtered, 6.332 were found to be tubercular, whereas out of 49,881 Canadian and United States cattle slaughtered only sixty-six were found to be so affected, he will consider the advisability of taking steps to secure that cattle which are rejected by foreign buyers for failing to pass the tuberculin test shall not be permitted to be sold to British farmers for breeding purposes.
§ MR. AILWYN FELLOWESWe are aware of the facts to which the hon. and gallant Member directs attention, and he may be interested to refer to the statement made on the subject by the late Mr. Hanbury in reply to a Question addressed to him by the hon. Member for Dundee in November, 1902.† So far as the Board are concerned they have no power to prohibit the sale of cattle which fail to pass the tuberculin test. It is for the purchasers of breeding stock to consider for themselves whether they will adopt the same course as that taken by many foreign buyers.