§ Mr. HUDSONasked the Minister of Agriculture at what British ports veterinary surgeons are stationed; whether it is the universal practice that a veterinary certificate is granted before horses are embarked for export, showing that the animals are in good health and in every way fit to travel by rail and sea; and whether the veterinary surgeons who may be appointed for this service are whole-time inspectors or are engaged in private practice also?
§ Mr. BUXTONVeterinary inspectors of the Ministry are stationed at all the ports in Great Britain from which horses are authorised to be shipped to the Continent of Europe, namely, Leith, Goole, Hull, Harwich, London, Folkestone, and Southampton. The reply to the second part of the question is in the affirmative, except that the precise wording of the veterinary certificate is that prescribed by the Exportation of Horses Act, 1914, which is, that the horse is capable of being conveyed and disembarked without cruelty and also capable of being worked without suffering. The inspectors employed at Goole, Hull, Harwich, London, and Folkestone are whole-time veterinary inspectors of the Ministry, but in the temporary absence of such inspectors qualified local practitioners are employed as inspectors to act for the whole-time officers. At Leith, a Professor of the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, acts as inspector of the Ministry, and at Southampton, where only a few horses are shipped, all of which are of a high class, a local practitioner has been appointed inspector.