§ SIR WILLIAM BULL (Hammersmith)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, if he will state the number of cattle intended for slaughter from the United States of America and the respective amounts of fresh beef from the United States and Argentina imported into England in 1906; and what proportion of the total amount of the beef consumed in England does this amount represent.
(Sir Edward Strachey.) The number of cattle imported from the United States into the United Kingdom in 1906 was 398,887, representing approximately 2,650,000 cwts, of beef. The total imports of fresh beef in 1906 from the United States were 2,426,644 cwts, and from Argentina 2,795,913. It is not possible to calculate the consumption of meat in England separately, but, adopting the estimates made by a Committee of the Royal Statistical Society and accepted by the Royal Commission on the Supply of Food and Raw Material in Time of War, the total consumption of beef in the United Kingdom in 1906 was approximately 1,100,000 tons. Of this total the supply from the United States and Argentina would amount to 36 per cent.