HC Deb 18 November 1954 vol 533 cc56-7W
77. Mr. Alport

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations why it has been decided that in future all exports of live cattle from Bechuanaland should cease; and why it has been decided to divert this trade from the hands of normal traders and away from existing markets in the Union of South Africa and the Rhodesias to the Colonial Development Corporation's newly-built Lobatsi abattoir.

Mr. Dodds-Parker

The abattoir at Lobatsi has been established to assist the development of the Protectorate's economy. The decision to proceed was taken in 1950 after full consultation with the European and African Advisory Councils which recognised that economic operation of the abattoir would require the processing through it of all but a very small proportion of the Protectorate's cattle exports. Exports of live cattle from certain remote areas in the North will continue.