§ Mr. CHARLES BATHURSTasked the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether he is aware that a quantity of Indian barley has recently been and is now being imported into the United Kingdom and that such barley is threshed by treading it with oxen; whether, seeing that foot-and-mouth disease is seriously prevalent in India, and that the screenings of such barley, after separating the grain used for brewing, are ground into barley meal and fed to cattle and pigs, it is, in 526W the opinion of his expert advisers, a likely or possible source of infection of the disease; and, if so, whether he will take steps to check or regulate such importation?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. With regard to the remaining parts of the question, I am not prepared to say that infection may not conceivably be introduced by means of feeding stuffs made out of barley threshed in the manner described, but the risk is inappreciable and, in my opinion, quite insufficient to justify the inconvenience and dislocation of trade which would result if the importation of such barley were prohibited.