The Embargo on Canadian Cattle.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17469, 1 June 1922, Page 6

The Embargo on Canadian Cattle.

! The embargo on the importation of Canadian cattle into Britain has long been a source of discontent in Canada, and of disunion in the British Ministry. It is not specifically aimed against Canada—otherwise it would have become a serious matter on Imperial grounds—but applies to all countries, and it was imposed with the object of protecting tho British cattle-industry against disease. At the Imperial Conference in 1917, it was agreed, on the motion of ono of Canada's representatives, that the embargo should be removed as speedily as possible. In the course of the discussion Lord Ernie (then Mr Prothero), who was President. of tho Board of Agriculture at the j time, said that the Board was in favour' of ending the embargo after the war. He added that he did not believe that there was then, or had been for a good many years 5 the slightest ground for j excluding Canadian cattlo on the score! of disease. Mr Walter Long, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, endorsed his colleague's view, and i promised that the necessary steps would be taken. Nothing, however, was done I until March, 1921, when the Govern- j ment promised to set up a Royal Commission to go into tho matter. In announcing this decision, Mr Lloyd George said that the pledges given in 1!)17 were " very definite pledges on behalf of the I " Cabinet." The Commission sat, ana

unanimously reported in favour of the removal of the embargo. Cabinet, however, is divided. Mr Churchill, for example, has told his constituents in Dundee that he is emphatically opposed to tho embargo, but to-day we have the President of the Board of Agriculture reported as delivering himself on the other side. He defends tho embargo as necessary for the protection and encouragement of cattle-breeding in England, the sheet-anchor of British agriculture. Tho British opponents of the embargo declare that the British herds are not increasing in proportion to tho population, and that the admission of store cattle would meet this difficulty) and secure a larger, and therefore cheaper, supply of milk and British-fed beef for the British public The meat imported into Britain grew from 108,033 tons in IS!>3 to 914,533 tons in 1920, and during the same period the number of home-grown cattle exposed for sale at Islington Market fell from 104,428 to 30,664. The number of cattle in Britain 50 years ago was 9,0.53,200. and in 1920 it was 11,732,000—the increase being much below the increase in population, and very much below the increase in tho amount of moat consumed. The British people naturally prefer fresh beef to imported meat, and British-fed beef to the foreign beef which, arriving on the hoof, must be slaughtered at port of landing. Although the free admission of Canadian stores is feared by those who are interested in the maintenance of the British live-stock industry, it is difficult to see how the undertaking given to Canada can be left unhonoured.