§ THE EARL OF MAYO had the following Question on the Paper—
§ To ask His Majesty's Government why, and for what reasons, the exportation of cattle and sheep from Ireland to England was restricted, i.e., only a certain amount of cattle and sheep are allowed to be landed at the usual ports in England.
§ The noble Earl said: My Lords, a little time ago an Order suddenly came out in the Irish daily papers restricting the export of cattle to ports that usually received those cattle in England. The reduction was very great indeed. Shortly afterwards that reduction was done away with to a certain extent, and the number of cattle was increased. What I complain about is that no reasons were given to the farmers in Ireland for the restriction. It came about at an awkward time of the year when they wanted to get rid of their grass-fed cattle so that the English buyers could use them as stores in this country.
§ I had great difficulty in finding out what Department had to deal with this. I wrote to the Board of Agriculture here and the matter was passed on to the Board of Agriculture for Ireland; finally the Ministry of Food in London wrote me a civil letter saying that it was intended to remove all restrictions on "Sunday next"—meaning Sunday last; but I have heard from Ireland that the restrictions have not been removed. I might mention that the restrictions have not been removed from the port of Birkenhead which is one of the largest ports receiving cattle from Ireland. It is too late now to say anything more, and I will ask the noble Earl the Questoin standing in my name on the Paper.
THE EARL OF CRAWFORDMy Lords, I am sorry that my noble friend should think that inadequate notice and explanation was given of this Order, but I am glad to confirm what he has stated—namely, that the restrictions to which he refers were removed as from Sunday, November 23, except in the case of Birkenhead, to which I will refer in a moment.
THE EARL OF CRAWFORDI am sorry; but I think that the reasons I shall now give will ex post facto comfort those who have suffered inconvenience. The restrictions were brought into existence on November 2 in consequence of the rush of cattle into the markets at the close of the grass season. It does not appear to be clearly understood by farmers that, though the Ministry of Food guarantees to pay certain prices for fat stock, it does so on the condition that the stock is required for consumption—that is to say, that the right is reserved to refuse to purchase cattle in quantities above the requirements of the consuming population. In spite of the fact that practically no meat imported from abroad was put into consumption, it was found necessary to exercise this right in Great Britain during November, and to restrict the numbers of fat stock accepted in markets throughout the country.
THE EARL OF CRAWFORDI think the noble Earl will see that at the outset the grievance was on the part of the British farmer rather than on the part of the Irish farmer. Urgent representations were made to the Food Controller that it was unjust to impose restrictions on the English farmer which were not applied to Ireland, and it was therefore decided to limit during a certain period the numbers of Irish fat stock to be accepted at British ports, and 514 thus to place the Irish and the British farmer on a level. A partial removal of the restrictions took place on November 12, when the quantities to be accepted were considerably raised; and, as I have already stated, all restrictions were removed as from November 23, except in the case of Birkenhead, at which port the numbers accepted will still be limited to 6,000 beasts and 6,800 sheep per week. This restriction was put into force at the beginning of August, 1919, owing to the abnormal rise in the numbers of Irish stock received at this particular port, and is calculated to avoid the accumulation of unduly large quantities of meat at one provincial centre.