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whole, or at least a substantial part, of the cost of providing free tuberculin testing from the Exchequer (paragraph 227).
(25) There should be no loss to the authority making or guaranteeing loans to farmers for eradication. But, if such a loss should occur, it should be appropriately divided between the local authority and the Exchequer (paragraph 228).
(Signed)
F. GOWLAND HOPKINS, Chairman. MERRIK R. BURRELL.*
E. P. CATHCART.
A. STANLEY GRIFFITH.
C. HARRIS.†
J. HARRY JONES.
JOHN MOORE.
(Signed)
FRANCIS HEMMING P. K. DEBENHAM
Joint secretaries
to the committee.
2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W. 1,
April 16, 1934.
For reservation by Sir Merrik Burrell, see page 99.
For addendum and reservation by Sir Charles Harris, see page 102. For addendum by Major-General Sir John Moore, see page 108.
99
Reservation by Sir Merrik Burrell.
Owing to the fact that the report has gone a considerable way to rectifying the defects of an organisation to control animal diseases based solely on the haphazard actions of over 300 local authorities, as exists at present in the United Kingdom, I have signed it, but subject to the following reservations :—
2. The nation not as a whole, including even the agricultural section of it, has never appreciated fully the very large economic value of the herds and flocks in the United Kingdom, nor the large annual production of fresh wealth derived from them. Still less has the diminution of that wealth through wastage from disease been realised. I had hoped that the production of this report would bring with it the realisation of the necessity of an attack on animal diseases on a national scale, conducted by a nationally organised staff, which I am convinced would be the most efficient and economical method. 3. The following memorandum, which has been submitted to the committee, sets out the reasons for my opinion.
4. I wish to refer to the levy on all milk suggested in para- graphs 167, 190, 224, and to make quite clear the fact that the producers of milk will not be able to shoulder any portion of such levy unless the price they receive for their milk is sufficient to enable them to do so. This refers with especial force to the owners of supervised herds. They will be incurring already extra cost in their attempt to clear their herds of the disease. Any voluntary scheme of eradication of tuberculosis will be doomed to failure before it starts if it threatens the owners of the herds with initial costs greater than they can bear, or have any hope of recouping.
5. I entertain also considerable doubts as to whether the delay of five years after the initiation of the scheme before the producer- retailers will be faced with the necessity of submitting to compulsory pasteurisation, if they have not cleared their herds of tuberculosis, will prove sufficiently long for the building up of a reservoir of clean cattle of such a size that they can obtain the cattle they require at a reasonable price, if at all.
(Signed)
MERRIK R. BURRELL.
Memorandum attached to reservation by Sir Merrik Burrell. Those who, with me, advocate a state organised service argue that disease knows no geographical boundaries, and to be controlled, let alone eradicated, must be attacked on a national scale in a consistent and co-ordinated manner. That if not, the good work of one local authority may be nullified, wholly or partly, by the inefficiency, lack of organisation, or intervention of some local interest of a neighbour. That the present duties of the state
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