Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1883

No. 237.
Mr. Lowell to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Legation of the United States,
London , July 14, 1883. (Received July 24.)

No. 587.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose two cuttings from the Times newspaper of July 11, containing a report of the debate in the House of Commons on a resolution moved by Mr. Chaplin with respect to the importation of cattle into the United Kingdom. The resolution was opposed by the Government, but carried in a full house by a majority of eight. In this majority were included thirty members who usually support the Government.

The result of the vote will probably be that all countries in which the laws for the extinction of disease and the inspection of animals to be exported are either not comprehensive and severe enough or not rigidly enough enforced to satisfy the demands of the privy council, will be put under an interdict. French cattle are already excluded, and those from Germany would have been but for the vigorous measures at once put in force by Prince Bismarck, alarmed by a threat of exclusion.

I feel warranted in saying that Mr. Chaplin’s resolution is not an attempt at protectionism in disguise, but rather expresses the well-grounded apprehensions of cattle-breeders here, who have suffered and are suffering great losses by the importation of the disease, as they believe, from abroad.

I can add nothing to what I have hitherto said as to the great importance of a system of inspection independent of the possible variation, whether in the provisions or the enforcement of local law, with inspectors of acknowledged scientific competence and personal character, and which should be enforced strictly enough to satisfy the demands of public opinion as well as the Government here.

I have, &c.,

J. R. LOWELL.

[Inclosure in No. 587.—Extract.]

Cutting from the Times of July 11, 1883.

Mr. Chaplin said that he rose to call attention, for the second time during the present Parliament, to the continued prevalence of the foot-and-mouth disease in various parts of the country, and to the grievous injury it had inflicted, not only upon those who were more immediately engaged in the pursuit of agriculture, but also on the interests of the community at large; * * * and concluded by moving, “that this house desires to urge on Her Majesty’s Government the importance of taking effectual measures for the suppression of foot-and-mouth disease throughout the United Kingdom, and it is of opinion that, while for this purpose it is necessary that adequate restrictions, under the powers vested in the privy council, should be imposed on the movements and transit of the cattle at home, it is even more important, with a view to its permanent extinction, that the landing of foreign live animals should not be permitted in future from any countries as to which the privy council are not satisfied that the laws thereof relating to the importation and exportation of animals, and to the prevention of the introduction or spreading of disease, and the general sanitary condition of animals therein, are such as to afford reasonable security against the importation therefrom of animals which are diseased.”