(To ran Soma or ram Srsociron..1
SIB,—The fact of your columns having been opened to the discussion of this gruesome and discreditable traffic will be a source of satisfaction to many who, like myself, have watched it and struggled with it for many years, with very little support from influential quarters. Mr. Staveley-Hill's letter in your issue of January 24th inspires fresh efforts. He is ready to bring forward or support in Parliament a Bill to deal "drastically" with the subject. This is good news; and it is to be Loped that the leaders of the agitation against the traffic will lose no time in availing themselves of his offer to meet them and discuss methods. But, while there is yet time, I would like very earnestly to call attention to the grave danger of any form of compromise or " regulation." Time after time, history and experience have shown that to " regulate " an evil means to make it "respectable," profitable, permanent; and many a gallant attempt at teal reform has been frustrated and perverted as the result of well-meant regulation. As long ago as 1898 an Order regulating this " Decrepit Horse Traffic" was issued by the Board of Agriculture. Far from discouraging the business, it was the signal for rapidly increas- ing exports. In 1906 fifty thousand worn-out or injured horses were sent across the North Sea ; between 1902 and 1909 over sixteen hundred convictions for cruelty in connexion with the traffic were obtained by the R.S.P.C.A. alone, apart from other agencies. Think of the aggregate of suffering that this represents ! The official Reports tell us that the more recent regulations, and the appointment of Government Port Veterinary Inspectors, have improved the class of horses exported by eliminating the very worst; in as far as this is the case, it must tend towards the retention and regularizing of the trade the public conscience is lulled and the suppression of the traffic made more difficult ; but it does not make the traffic itself anything but shameful. The numbers exported keep up, and the abominable thing goes gaily on, recognized, justified, and protected by the Government of a " Christian " country which boasts of its humanity. Thus we see that, as must inevitably be the case, regulation has encouraged and systematized the evil it was intended to restrict. What though the Belgian Government has prohibited the importation of dead meat ? Is that a reason why we should do violence to our hearts and consciences in order to accommodate them ? Let them rescind the edict or go without the meat. In your note to Mr. Staveley-Hill's letter you quote certain suggested safe- guards against the extremes of suffering inflicted in the business. I venture to think that, with the exception, perhaps, of No. 3, none of them would be of the slightest practical use, if only because they could not be enforced. Probably few who have had close experience of official " inspection " have much confidence in its results. Let us make no terms with this odious and immoral traffic, and accept no regulation and no tinkering of it ; but, without further loss of time, promote a Bill for its total and unconditional suppression.—I am, Sir,
L M. Gam.
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