§ MR. BECK (Cambridgeshire, Wisbech)To ask the hon. Member for South Somerset, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, whether the Board intend to prohibit temporarily the importation of gooseberry bushes and standards on Ribes aureum stocks, in view of the danger of the further introduction into this country of the American gooseberry mildew on such imported plants.
(Answered, by Sir Edward Strachey.) The Board are now considering the terms of an order prohibiting the importation of plants and bushes bearing edible fruit except by a licence to which conditions will be attached with the object of preventing the introduction not only of the gooseberry mildew but also of other pests injurious to horticulture.