158.429/195
The Consul General at Montreal ( Halstead ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 2.]
Sir: I have the honor to quote the following article from the Montreal Star of yesterday:
“In connection with the rumored probability of having the embargo on importation of milk and cream into the United States lifted or the area from which the importation is prohibited reduced, Albert Halstead, local Consul General for the United States, today made the following statement:
“‘The embargo on importation of milk and cream into the United States from the specified Montreal area will only be lifted when the Public Health Department in Washington, D. C., has been satisfied that there is no further danger of infection.
“‘This decision will be made after the fullest study of the situation.
“‘The imposition of the embargo was solely for the purpose of protecting the health of the people of the United States, and the prohibited area will be reduced or the embargo lifted only when it is assured that there is no further danger of infection.
“‘This assurance alone will influence action’.”
The statement is correct and was made in answer to an inquiry because of intimations that the dairy industries in the United States [Page 110] are behind the move and because of the idea that influence from this city might change the policy of the United States Government in the matter of the protection of its people from typhoid infection.
The Department may be interested in knowing that everyone whom I have met since the embargo has expressed approval of the action of the United States Government and because of the feeling that it will lead to improving sanitary conditions amongst Montreal dairies, will make more efficient the sanitary administration throughout the province, and in general be a salutary lesson. It should not be thought, however, that there is a large proportion of insanitary dairies in Quebec. Many of the farmers are not up-to-date in their methods and doubtless much of the milk is unclean but there are many sanitary dairies, some in the eastern townships and some around Athelston on the New York Central Line from Montreal to Malone, and clean dairies can result from proper education and attention to the subject.
I have [etc.]