§ MR. BRIGG (Yorkshire, W.R., Keighley)To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will give instructions to the consuls in the ports from which goats' hair, mohair, and low quality of wools are exported to circulate amongst the farmers, dealers, and packers in their respective districts a request that they will use every possible precaution to prevent blood stains and pieces of skin being sent to this country in bales for manufacturing purposes, as according to the recent discovery by Dr. Enrich, of Bradford, that the germs of anthrax are traceable to blood stains 251 and not to the ordinary dust arising from the sorting of foreign materials, the fatal cases arising from anthrax may be diminished, and the costly regulations for dealing with ordinary dust may, if thought advisable, be considerably modified.
(Answered by Secretary Sir Edward Grey.) I am advised by the Secretary of State for the Home Department that the issue of such a request as is suggested in the Question might possibly prove useful though too great expectations must not be based upon it, and that, after consultation with the Home Office, steps will be taken to bring the suggestion to the notice of those interested.