You are instructed to communicate the purport of Mr. Rusk’s letter to the
foreign office.
[Inclosure to No. 1049.]
Mr. Rusk to Mr.
Foster.
Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C., February 2, 1893.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your note of the 26th ultimo, inclosing a copy of
dispatch No. 897 from the United States minister at London relative
to the restrictions upon the admission of American cattle into
Canada, this dispatch being accompanied by a copy of a note from the
Earl of Rosebery on the same subject.
Concerning this dispatch and also a former one, No. 857, from the
chargé d’affaires ad interim at London, which inclosed a note of the
same tenor from the Earl of Rosebery relative to the admission of
American cattle into Great Britain, I desire to state in the most
positive terms that this Department does not admit the correctness
of the opinion of the Canadian minister of agriculture that
pleuro-pneumonia exists in New Jersey, nor the conclusion of the
veterinary officers of the board of agriculture that animals
affected with this disease have been found among cattle shipped from
[Page 350]
the United States to
Great Britain. On the contrary, I must express an emphatic protest
against such unjust and unfounded conclusions.
There has not been a case of pleuro-pneumonia in New Jersey since
March 26, 1892, a period of more than ten months. On September 26,
1892, I issued a proclamation, stating that there had not been a
case of pleuro-pneumonia in the United States for a period of six
months, and that the contagion had been entirely eradicated from
this country. I am at a loss to understand how the Canadian minister
of agriculture can state that he believes this disease still
“continues to exist in New Jersey, and in relation to other parts of
the United States he has not been furnished with adequate proof of
its complete extinction.” The proclamation above referred to was an
official statement that the disease no longer existed in this
country, and it was not made until a period of six months had
elapsed after the last case had been disposed of. The usual courtesy
shown by one friendly Government to another would seem to require
that such official statement should be accepted until positive
evidence to the contrary could be produced.
In regard to the note of the Earl of Rosebery, dated November 30,
1892, in which a tabulated statement is made alleging the discovery
of ten cases of pleuro-pneumonia in American cattle landed in Great
Britain from October 7, 1892, to November 6, 1892, inclusive, it
should be stated that no evidence has been cited beyond the mere
assertion of the veterinary inspectors that the cattle in question
were affected with the disease named. On the contrary, the American
inspectors stationed in Great Britain by the courtesy of Her
Majesty’s Government are positive that the animals referred to were
not affected with contagious pleuro-pneumonia, but with ordinary
noncontagious broncho-pneumonia, or interstitial pneumonia, which is
caused by exposure and not by contagion.
When the case of the animal shipped on the steamship England, and entered in the table opposite
the date of October 7, was under discussion, the veterinary officers
of the board of agriculture kindly permitted a section of the
affected lung to be sent to this Department for examination. This
was the first case reported after the issuance of my proclamation
announcing the eradication of the disease; and it was consequently
regarded as a test case. A careful examination of the lung mentioned
proved that it was affected to a moderate degree with ordinary
interstitial pneumonia, and that there were none of the peculiar
characters of contagious pleuro-pneumonia to be found in it. The
animal was also traced to the farm on which it had been fed, and it
was clearly established that there had never been a case of
pleuro-pneumonia in that section of the country. The route to the
seaboard by which it was transported was also followed, and it was
shown that there was no opportunity for contagion from the time it
left the farm until it was placed on board the steamer.
During all the period since the disease was eradicated, a special
inspection has been maintained by a large force of veterinarians in
the districts where it had existed, and an inspection of the
internal organs of cattle is made at all the great slaughterhouses
of the country. If pleuro-pneumonia exists in the United States, our
inspectors would certainly have found it, either in the acute or
chronic form, in much less time than has passed since the last case
was discovered.
These are facts to which the Government of Great Britain should be
willing to give careful consideration. It is well known that for
many years Professor Williams and other distinguished veterinarians
of Great Britain have been convinced that the veterinary officers of
the board of agriculture were mistaken in their conclusion as to the
nature of the disease which they have found in the lungs of American
cattle landed in England. Professor Nocard, the eminent veterinary
authority of France, who made a careful investigation of a lung
disease found in American cattle shipped to France, is positive that
the malady is not contagious. He has since been shown specimens of
the affected lungs from American cattle pronounced by the British
veterinarians to be pluero-pneumonia, and he identifies the disease
with that previously studied by him, and is positive that it is not
pleuro-pneumonia.
In view of the facts mentioned above, and considering that the
veterinary inspectors of the board of agriculture have not
discovered a single case of disease in American cattle which
presented the charcteristic lesions of contagious pleuro-pneumonia,
I must reaffirm my statement that this country is free from that
disease and protest against contrary assertions from the governments
of other countries.
It is not denied that the Government of Great Britain may properly
take such action as is considered necessary to protect the stock
interests of the United Kingdom from contagious diseases, but it may
at the same time be asserted that that Government has no right to
put the stigma of contagious disease upon the great export trade of
this country in live cattle without better evidence than has so far
been produced.
I trust that this view of the question will be placed before the
Government of Great Britain and that just treatment may yet be
accorded to the cattle exporters of the United States.
I have, etc.,
