§ Mr. M'ARTHURasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether he would state what information he had received relative to a new outbreak of cattle disease in Argentina?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of AGRICULTURE (Sir E. Strachey)The Board have received official information that foot-and-mouth disease exists in the provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios, in the territory of Chaco, and in the zone north of Santa Fe.
§ Mr. M'ARTHURasked whether, having regard to the recent and further prospective rise in the price of meat and the hardship thereby inflicted upon the great mass of consumers, the Board can relax any of their restrictions upon the importation of cattle into the United Kingdom, whether for slaughter at the port of discharge or for store purposes?
§ Sir E. STRACHEYThe importation of cattle into this country is already allowed by the Board in all cases in which the statutory conditions designed to prevent the introduction of animals affected with foot-and-mouth disease are satisfied. The requirement that imported cattle shall be slaughtered at the port of landing is a 1307 statutory one, and the Board have no power to relax it. I may add that I do not believe that the rise in the price of beef is due to the exclusion of Argentine cattle for slaughter at the ports.