HC Deb 20 February 1933 vol 274 cc1431-2
27. Lieut.-Colonel MOORE

asked the Secretary of State for India if he will consider issuing instructions that the animals slaughtered for the food of the British troops in India shall be killed by British soldiers and that the humane killer shall be the method employed?

Sir S. HOARE

I fear I can add nothing to the replies I gave to my hon. and gallant Friend on the I3th June last, except that the authorities in India are continuing 'to give this matter their attention.

Lieut.-Colonel MOORE

Is my right hon. Friend aware that it is now the policy of the Army to give vocational training to soldiers before they leave the Service, and will not he consider training such soldiers as butchers, so as to eliminate the abominable Mohammedan method of slaughter?

Sir S. HOARE

I went fully into this question on the 13th June, and I really have nothing to add to the answer then given to my hon. and gallant Friend.

Brigadier-General CLIFTON BROWN

Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind the religious susceptibilities of our Indian friends and not do anything which might raise their objections?

Sir S. HOARE

If my hon. and gallant Friend will look at the answer of the 13th June, he will see that I dealt with that point.

Mr. RHYS DAVIES

Will the right hon. Gentleman see to it that humane killers are adopted in our own country before they are imported into India?

Sir S. HOARE

That is a question which should be addressed to some other Minister.