asked the Minister of Agriculture the total number of horses, for the year 1953, returned by owners of horse-carrying vessels, under Section 13 of the Horses (Sea Transport) Order, 1952, as having died or having been killed or injured in transit.

There were nine casualties among the 17,000 horses shipped to or from Great Britain during 1953. Six horses died and three had to be slaughtered because of illness or injury.

Since the Sea Transport Order was introduced primarily because of the abuse and because of the notoriety of this traffic across the Irish Sea, do not those figures indicate that the Order is almost a dead letter already, when only nine casualties are reported out of 17,000 horses carried in this nefarious traffic? What is the Minister going to do in order to get a proper check on the strips?

I should have thought that the figures gave an entirely different construction and that they showed a satisfactory position. If, however, the hon. Gentleman has any evidence of contravention of the Order and will let me have it, I shall be glad to look into it.