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119
Government Board expresses some other view as to how your advisers should
act, their recommendations must be carried out in their entirety, especially at
such an important trading centre as the market under your control at
Smithfield.
There is no reason whatever, and no argument has been brought forward
that will in any way warrant your relaxing the existing procedure, and in
this connection it is well to remember that the Corporation has from time to
time been attacked by outside Authorities for not carrying out the recommendations
more stringently.*
III.—TUBERCULOSIS (ANIMALS) PREVENTION AND
COMPENSATION RILL.
This was a Private Bill, that proposed to give compensation to the extent
of two.thirds of the value to the owner in cases of animals found to be
tuberculous after slaughter. Half this compensation was to be paid by the
Local Authority of the district where the animal is slaughtered, and the other
half out of monies voted by Parliament.
It was proposed that the Sanitary Authority where the animal is slaughtered
should be reimbursed by the Authority where the animal was fed, unless it
could be shown that the latter were carrying out proper regulations with
regard to the keeping of animals.
There were three main objections to the Bill.
In the first place it would have been unworkable on account of the difficulty
of adjusting disputes between Sanitary Authorities.
Secondly, every case of seizure for Tuberculosis would have to be heard
before a Magistrate, and in the City this would involve a daily hearing at the
Guildhall.
Thirdly, the Local Authorities would have been empowered by the Bill to
make Bye.laws at variance with the recommendations of the Royal
Commission on Tuberculosis previously referred to.
* The Second Interim Report of the Royal Commission appointed to enquire into the relations of human
and animal tuberculosis, issued while this Report is in the Press, has fully established the identity of human
and bovine tuberculosis, and therefore the possibility of infection of man from tuberculous meat. This
emphasises the importance of not countenancing any relaxation of the existing restrictions in dealing with
tuberculous meat, and the recommendations of the Local Government Board on this point must remain as the
standard by which meat in this country must be judged.
There is now no room for any difference of action, and want of uniformity can only arise if this standard
is not adopted, or is modified in any detail as the result of individual opinion, for which at present there is no
justification.
The standard may, or may not be altered hereafter, but in the meantime the only reasonable course is to
accept it absolutely.