§ Mr. KELLAWAYasked whether the Board of Agriculture has received from the Poultry Keepers Protection Society a letter calling his attention to the injury done to smallholders and other poultry keepers by the increasing number of foxes preserved in England and to the increase 2098 in the losses of poultry due to the depredations of these animals; whether the society have directed his attention to the fact that some hunts ignore poultry claims, and that the Southdown Hunt, whilst preserving quite three times the number of foxes that it can adequately deal with in the hunting season, yet refuses compensation to any poultry keepers except farmers over whose land the hunt rides and the employés of such; whether the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture is aware that the society also complains of the increasing importation of alien foxes; and whether, having regard to the manner in which the poultry-raising industry is threatened by this state of affairs, he will state what reply he proposes to make to the representations of the society?
§ Mr. GULLANDThe Board have received the letter to which my hon. Friend refers, and inquiry is being made with regard to it.