Further to our conversation of this morning I hope to submit a more detailed criticism of the Krebs and Bourne reports when I have my own copies to which to refer.

  In the meantime would you please submit my letter and the enclosed copy letter [not printed] from the Veterinary Times to your committee to be evidence which is relevant to the first paragraph of your press notice no 41 dated 4th November 1998:

—  the design and likely effectiveness of the culling experiment etc.

  I wish to make it clear that it is my view that the present "experiment" is fundamentally flawed.

The significant issues to be considered by the independent Expert group overseeing the experiment:

  The whole approach needs to be reconsidered along the lines outlined in my letter to the Veterinary Times. There is nothing to be gained by tinkering with the present experiment which needs to be stopped as it is not likely to produce any information of scientific merit. There is a strong resistance from some landowners to its implementation and this makes the approach totally impractical and for these reasons it is, in my view, not the best application of public resource.

2 December 1998