U.S. Horse Breeder Appeals To Queen

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31144, 22 August 1966, Page 13

U.S. Horse Breeder Appeals To Queen

(N.Z PA. Reuter —Copyright)

LONDON, August 21

A Californian horse breeder, Mr Gregory Lougher, has asked Queen Elizabeth to help untangle a quarantine deadlock that has stranded his best 30 horses aboard a freighter.

The horses, bred on his, ranch in Clements, California, are destined for Australia, but Mr Lougher says they have nowhere to go because of a rigidly-applied rule on their entry to Britain. Mr Lougher, aged 50, mortgaged his ranch and paid a £7OOO fare to bring the breeding horses for a six-month stay in Britain before settling them in Australia. But Britain has banned their entry because the ship spent a night at Le Havre, France, where there is an outbreak of swamp fever. They cannot continue to Australia without spending six months in Britain to satisfy Australia’s quarantine rules. And they must leave the Royal Mail Line ship Loch) Gowan by Tuesday, when it' goes into dry dock. Mr Lougher said he had spoken by trans-Atlantic tele-, phone to his partner. Mr David Briggs, of Willows, California He said: "I have already) wired Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth on this problem and been in touch with Lr’ted States State Senators and the United States Department of Agriculture." i

;, Mr Lougher said that he, would try to telephone the;■ . Prime Minister, Mr Wilson,! | now on holiday in the Scilly ’ 1 1 Isles. | "The only thing to do is I I to go to the top,” he said.