HC Deb 09 June 1913 vol 53 cc1277-8W
Mr. PATRICK WHITE

asked the Prime Minister whether Sub-section (23) of Section 22 of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act of 1894, for prohibiting the conveyance of animals by any specified vessel to or from any port in the United Kingdom for such time as the Board may consider expedient, the Sub-section upon which the English Board of Agriculture relied for its authority last year to place an embargo on Irish cattle, is taken word for word from Section 4 of the Act of 1884, and should be read in conjunction with that Act, which applied to foreign countries only, except in so far as it related to the fitness of vessels engaged in the domestic trade to carry animals; and whether his attention has been called to the statement of the Minister in charge of it in the House of Commons that it applied to foreign countries only?

The PRIME MINISTER

I am informed by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries that none of the Orders issued by his Department last year in respect of the landing of Irish cattle in Great Britain was based upon Sub-section (23) of Section 22 of the Diseases of Animals Act, 1894.