“PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 3”

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22877, 25 November 1939, Page 15

“PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 3”

TO THE EDITOR OP THE PRESS. Sir, —The report under the above heading in “The Press” to-day must have given much amusement to “the man in the street,” who is thoroughly aware of the despicable tactics adopted towards the present Government by that noisy minority of the Farmers’ Union dubbed “Public Enemy No. 3” by “Uncle Scrim.” In writing on this topic I do not include the hard-work-ing farmers, but only those self-inter-ested members in the Farmers’ Union who “farm the farmers”; and any hard-working farmer will tell us (and. indeed, it has been reported in your columns more than once) that the Farmers’, Union’s noisy minority do not represent the farmers in general. Ever since 1935 this noisy, self-inter-ested mine, ity has been persistently attaching almost every piece of legislation enacted, and have condemned marketipg proposals, guaranteed prices, etc.; have vigorously insisted upon the conscription of human lives, while demanding an exemption for themselves, their sons, and certain sections of their own small community. They have (it seems apparent to all people who appraise truth and progress) found much pleasure in the sabotaging of the 40-hour week, and at all periods decrying the finances of the country. They even, in their stupidity, have made an insistent demand for “a free exchange,” o rm other words a bank-profiteers’ picnic, and they are now annoyed that this Government (in its patriotic desire to feed the people of Britain during this regrettable crisis) has brought in marketing proposals which will prevent a welter of gross profiteering similar to that which was indulged in during the last war by the self-mterested > minority section of the Farmers Union i and their financial backers, whilst the hard-working farmer who produced the goods got little or nothing out of the deal.—Yours, etc.. J. HILtLi. Conway, November 23, 1939.