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Show CHINESE PORK FOR EXPORT. During n recent official visit to China Chi-na Dr. Reginald Farrar. medical ln-,spqctpj ln-,spqctpj bqalgovernmont board, re. eclved Instructions' to Inquire Into tho export or,tChlncso pork to England, 'W PV, iil beon 'tllc subject joCe.quoB-upns'ln joCe.quoB-upns'ln the hou?o of commons. .This report, dated October 25th. has now' been published by the local government govern-ment board (Food Reports, No.- 1G.) i riasi Dr" Farrftr coujd ascertain pork is being exported to England from only two places In China,- namely, name-ly, from Hankow on the Yang-tee-river and from Harbin, in Manchuria. It is proposed, however, to export pork from Shanghai. A prejudice is entertained en-tertained among European lesldents in certain parts of China and has been transmitted to England against tho use of Chinese pork, on the ground that the Chinese pig ls said to be a scavenger pig that feeds on garbage, and is, therefore, likely to becomo the vehicle of parasitic diseases. It is true, says Dr. Farrar, that in many villages of China pigs-, are to be seen rooting about in the streets and feeding feed-ing on garbage. It ls also probable that these animals are eventually cut7 en by poor persons of the coolie class', and many Europeans have apparently jumped to the conclusion that thu Chinese pork which is exported to England is derived from animals of this clnss. But not onlv the pigs that are exported to England, but in gen-oral gen-oral those also which are sold in the native markets for consumption by the Chinese, are grain-fed pigs rearcl on farms under conditions which compare com-pare favorably with those that obtain in England. To Dr Farrar's knowledge knowl-edge pork is freely eaten by Europeans in such places as Shanghai, Hankow and Harbin Pork Is the -staple meat food throughout China. The pork that the doctor has seen exposed for salo In native shops hns been nearly always al-ways good fat feat, whereas the scavenger scav-enger pigs, of which one or two may be seen in most villages, are lean, skinny animals, with pendulous bellies bel-lies that tell of the unsatisfying nature na-ture of their food. They arogenoral-lv arogenoral-lv old sows of no use for fattening, Tho Chinese are a frugal people, who throw very little foodstuff to waste,, and it Is not reasonable to suppose that pork sufficient for the demands of the population could bo fed on tho scanty garbage that ls to be picked up in tho streets of a Chinese village. It is, moreover, unlikely that a firm which is trying to establish in tho Enghsh market a new and successful trade in pork or bacon, competing against the markets of the world, would find it to Us piofit to export lean scavenger pigs fed on garbage. He adds that within his experience the average Chinese is as dainty in his feed.ng as the average Englishman, English-man, and the Idea of eating garbage, fed pork is ns repugnant to the respectable re-spectable Chinese as it Is to ourselves The Chinese word for homo (chin) ls represented by an idegraphic character char-acter which signifies a pig under a roof The fact indicates that tho pig In China has for many centuries been regarded as a domesticated animal. Hong Kong Press. |