CATTLE FOR BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1922, Page 5

CATTLE FOR BRITAIN.

AUSTRALIA AND EMBARGO. ALTERATION STILL POSSIBLE. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 14, 7.45 p.m. London, Dec. 13. Sir Joseph Cook conferred with the Duke of Devonshire with regard to the omission of the clause in the Cattle Embargo Bill, thus conferring a privilege on Canada not conceded to other parts of the Empire. Sir Joseph Cook holds that such differentiation is wrong in principle. The Duke of Devonshire hopes to see what can be done to reinsert the clause when the Bill reaches the House of Lords. An authority on the British bloodstock cattle, in an interview, pointed out that even though the British embargo was removed, it would not produce any considerable importations in bloodstock cattle from Australia and New Zealand. There was only likely to be an occasional importation from one or two of Australia’s and New Zealand’s best herds, and these would be imported only with a view to testing. The effect of crossing, apart from the removal of any official embargo on such ’ importations, would entirely depend upon the attitude of bloodstock breeding societies. If the latter refused to admit Australasian importations to their herd books, it would be useless to send breeding cattle to Britain. He instanced the Friesians recently imported from South Africa. Breeders there imagined they were going to flood Britain with highpriced Friesians. but the societies, after completing the importation of speciallyselected stock required for a specific purpose, refused to recognise any further shipments. This authority incidentally declared that the recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease was due to Irish Sinn Feiners, who deliberately injected infection into cattle before shipment to England, with the result that when the cattle were marketed the disease spread throughout the country. Speaking on the Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Long said he regretted the omission of a clause giving the Minister of Agriculture permissive powers to sanction the importation of cattle from other Dominions. He hoped the matter would be discussed at the forthcoming Dominions’ conference.

Lord Stanhope hoped that no pledge would be given by the Government to accede to the Dominions’ demands without a full inquiry. Closing the debate, the Duke of Devonshire said he had not the slightest doubt that the clearest possible undertakings had been given that the removal of the restrictions on Canadian cattle were intended to apply to cattle from other Dominions. He was fully prepared to give an undertaking that if the point was raised at the Imperial Conference, which he hoped would meet in London in 1923, satisfactory arrangements would be reached. British livestock had no fear of livestock from the Dominions but the growing competition of chilled and frozen meat. The Bill was read a second time. — Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.