Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎168v] (336/442)

2033 Fool-and-Mouth Disease. HOUSE OF COMMONS Foot-and-Mouth Disease. 2034
[Mr. Russell.]
its cause. We had better check it and
stamp it out before finding out what is
the cause.
Mr. C. BATHURST: I should like to ask
the right hon. Gentleman whether he does
not consider it a most important factor for
his Department, when an outbreak takes
place, to find out whether on those pre
mises there is any article of food or other
medium for the contagion to be conveyed.
That is the course adopted in this country
when an outbreak takes place, and it seems
to me a little extraordinary that a record
only should be taken with a view to an ulti
mate inquiry to take place hereafter when
it is much less easy to discover the source
of the disease than it would be if the in
quiry were made on the spot immediately
the outbreak occurs.
Mr. RUSSELL: Yes, and the Depart
ment has done that. We have found out
that there has been no foreign hay or
straw used on that farm, no cake has been
used for feeding purposes, the cattle have
been out on the land since February last,
and have never been under a roof since,
and there is no foreign litter or anything
of the kind. When I said inquiries were
being made and recorded that is all we
can do while we are actually grappling
with the disease.
Lord BALCARRES: I am glad to hear
that the right hon. Gentleman is pursuing
these researches. If the facts, as he now
states them, are proved after further in
vestigation by his expert advisers to be
the complete facts of the case, it is almost
obvious that the original disease in
Swords broke out from contagion. What
has made persons interested in stock here
more anxious even than the outbreak at
Swords ha-s been the case of the head
of this animal which reached Liverpool
from Ireland, and if the right hon. Gentle
man can convince those interested in
British stock that this did not reach this
country from Ireland, he will have done
much more to re-establish sufficient con
fidence to justify his approaching the
President of the Board of Agriculture to
relax his restrictions than any amount of
effort actually within the scheduled area
which surrounds the township of Swords.
I hope the right hon. Gentleman is
seriously pursuing his inquiries into that
particular case. There is a very grave
conflict between the two Departments on
the subject. The only point upon which
the right hon. Gentleman claims that he
has shown that his English colleague is
inaccurate, lies in the fact that the heads
of these cattle were not received at Liver
pool, as stated by the English President,
in sacks, but that they were received at
Liverpool in hampers. This is not a very
serious disparity between the two accounts.
Mr. LARDNER: It is the other way
about.
Lord BALCARRES: There is an expla
nation for it. What it is I do not know.
I cannot say whether it is a good one or
a bad one, but there is evidently some
thing to be added. What is creating real
fear in this country is that there has been
some outbreak not yet identified, whether
it be in Scotland or Ireland, some
where outside of the Swords district, and
outside any of the affected districts here.
The one thing required is to make one’s
mind free of the alarm that the disease
has not yet been adequately located and
that the source of the outbreak has not
yet been determined. I do hope the right
hon. Gentleman will pursue his inquiries
from that aspect, which is more important
than the condition of things at Swords.
He has official experts watching the
disease at Swords day by day, and I hope
that if an outbreak takes place there the
slaughter of the animals will be carried
out with the utmost celerity and that the
beasts will be treated in such a manner
as to destroy all possibility of infection.
But there is fear that there has been an
outbreak which has not yet been located,
and for anything we know it may be
among the animals that arrived by ship
at Liverpool.
Mr. RUSSELL: No, it was a head that
showed the disease.
Lord BALCARRES : A head that arrived
by ship at Liverpool. So far as I know,
the heads forwarded to Liverpool were
mostly from Scotland or Ireland, but
whether they were from England, Scot
land, or Ireland there is a fear, so far as
British agriculturists are concerned, that
there was an outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease which has not yet been located.
I content myself by urging the right hon.
Gentleman to take the utmost trouble
himself, and, with the help of his inspec
tors, to find out where this potential in
crease of the disease lies, so that they will
be able to treat cases promptly -wherever
they occur.