HL Deb 26 March 1908 vol 186 cc1536-7
THE EARL OF ONSLOW

My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Clinton I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, in view of the recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, he has considered the question of prohibiting the importation into this country of hay and straw used for packing.

EARL CARRINGTON

My Lords, as regards this question, perhaps I may be permitted to recall the attention of the House to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Edinburgh in February last We were fortunate enough to stamp it out successfully, and it was discovered that the disease was introduced through some hay imported from Holland. The question was, ought hay and straw imported from infected countries to be prohibited, and, if so, to what extent? I looked up the precedents, and found that my predecessors in 1885 and 1892, and, I believe, in other years, decided that such action should not be taken. In another place some hon. Members, who really ought to know better, blamed me for not at once prohibiting the importation of hay and straw from infected countries. They said it only required a mere stroke of the pen, and ought to have been done at once. The present Government are entirely opposed to anything like panic legislation, and as the imports of hay and straw for fodder and litter alone amounted in 1906 to £400,000, I thought it was my duty to satisfy my colleagues that there was no undue proportion between the danger of infection and the loss of trade resulting from the prohibition of this hay and straw—that is to say that the premium for insurance must not be an unreasonable amount. This straw is not pressed straw. It is subject to light and air, which, I am informed on the best authority, is fatal to the preservation of the virus which produces infection, so that the risk of infection is, to say the least of it, problematical, and not sufficient to justify what would be a great disturbance in the trades concerned. I have done, and will do, all in my power to maintain the health of our live stock under proper conditions, but I am not prepared, and I absolutely decline, to be a party to any panic legislation or to harass persons connected with legitimate trades by restrictions which, in our opinion, are useless and uncalled for.