§ MR. BOWERMANTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if his attention has been called to the fact that Messrs. Armour, Swift, and three other firms comprising what is known as the American Beef Trust, have acquired or are financing several businesses in Smithfield Market and elsewhere, with the object (in addition to the wholesale trade already done in this country by those firms) of carrying on trade as retailers for the sale of American beef only; whether he is aware that the effect of the action of the Beef Trust 713 is calculated, as was proved by a committee of the United States Senate to be the case in America, to give such trust the power to fix the price of beef to the consumer; whether the Department is in a position to state or ascertain the number of such shops or businesses so controlled; and whether he will consides the advisability of the removal of the existing restrictions upon the importation into Deptford and other similar markets in this country of live cattle for almost immediate slaughter from Continental and other countries officially declared to be free from foot-and-mouth disease, with a view to checking the growth of the trust in question and the giving of employment to a very large number of British workpeople.
(Answered by Mr. Churchill.) I have again communicated with Messrs. Armour, who inform me that they are not interested in any scheme or plan such as that suggested or implied in the Question of my hon. friend. I understand from the Board of Agriculture that they are not prepared to modify the existing regulations with regard to the importation of live cattle.