Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 20 December 1973.
It was not a recent announcement; it was something which had to be faced, because there is no known treatment for Dutch elm disease other than the individual injection of trees, and even that is by no means really established as a cure. It is not a method which is practicable for all the trees in the country.