REVOLT STAYED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 45, 23 February 1939, Page 13

REVOLT STAYED

THE BRITISH FARMER

NEW MINISTER APPROVED

BIGGER SUBSIDIES

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, February 2. The revolt of Britain's- farmers against the Government's, agricultural policy has subsided —for the time being. The appointment of Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, former president of'the National Farmers' Union, to the Ministry of Agriculture, and his maiden speech in that capacity, coincided with the "march on London" of 1000 farmers and the rally of 4000 country people at Westminster. . Both the march and the rally were to have vented the farmers' protests. Instead, with the elevation of Sir Reginald from the back benches, timed nicely by the Premier's shrewdness, the farmers' dissension turned to approval. Sir Reginald made a favourable impression in the House; members arid the farmers applauded. The country people will now expect action to follow words. SIR REGINALD'S STIPULATION. It is reported by the "Yorkshire Post" that the" condition upon which Sir Reginald accepted his new post v-*s' the doubling of the Government's f uncial assistance to farmers. At prer nt they receive £14,500,000 annually m the State. To that sum £15,000,000 o be added. Farmers consider that Gain's existing agricultural output - worth £250,000,000 a year. That is '"! 3 price which they want guaranteed. They believe that, wisely expended, the extra £15,000,000 promised can guarantee it. i They would prefer to raise the national output to £300,000,000. This, they say, would bring back to the land between 150,000 and 200,000 men. But> to achieve this, still further Government money would be needed. The new policy is expected to cover barley, oats, sugar-beet, beef, sheep, pigs, milk and other dairy products, and eggs and poultry. A motion calling for a policy based on guaranteed prices and the regulation of imports by methods agreed upon by the Empire Producers' Conference at Sydney was carried in the House of Commons after Sir Reginald had made his maiden speech. • It was moved by Sir Percy Hurd. POLICY STATEMENT LATER. Sir Reginald, who sat next to Mr. W. S. Morrison, whom he succeeded, began by recalling the announcement last December that the Government was reviewing the agricultural position and consulting N.F.U. branches throughout the country. Until those consultations were completed the House would not expect him to make a statement of policy. In passing, he referred to the fundamental difference between the views adopted by the Government and the Opposition. The Government believed that imports should be regulated by the farmers; the Opposition preferred them to be regulated by the Government itself. "Action must be both swift and direct to produce that expansion of food production from our own soil which I think is necessary," Sir Reginald said. "I know/,of. no more importapt task than of ensuring that in all circumstances there should be adequate supplies of food for our population in times of emergency. In this process home agriculture must play a leading part. No country can stay as strong and vital as ours is, and as we intend to remain, if it allows the land to decay." The Government, he continued, had expressed last v July their general approval of the principle of regulation of supplies through commodity councils, as proposed at the Empire Producers' Conference. They had given concrete evidence of their desire to encourage the formation of such councils by the.enlargement of the Empire Beef Council to deal with imports of mutton and lamb. The general intention of the Sydney conference was that the initiative for the formation of such councils should come from producers themselves, and while the Government would give every possible help and encouragement in their formation he hoped that the initiative by organised producers throughout the Empire would be forthcoming. It was in the interests of Britain and her people to do what could be done to see that there was a fair level of prices throughout the world. It must obviously be the Government's object to enable home agriculture in all its branches to achieve the maximum degree of efficiency so that it could meet competition under the most favourable conditions. The first thing to be done was to provide farmers and farm workers with real confidence in the future. MARCH TO WESTMINSTER. While Sir, Reginald was speaking in the House, train loads of farmers were arriving in London. Nearly 1000 of them marched from Tower Hill to Westminster to the strains of "A Farmer's Boy," "John Brown's Body," "John Peel," and "A-Hunting We Will Go.!' Farm labourers and their wives carried an ear of wheat in their hatband or coat lapel, and several carried banners bearing the slogans: "Justice for the Land" and "Save Agriculture and Save Britain." At Central Hall Mr. H. E. Mobbs, a Suffolk farmer and chairman of the meeting, explained some of the farmers' general grievances. He said that 750,000 acres had been lost to the plough and nearly 130,000 workers lost to the land since the National Government began. "Owing to the lack of policy of Governments over many years farmers are today unable to make farming pay," he declared. "We have been compelled to discharge some of the finest workers in the world because the money we receive for our produce is not sufficient to keep them in employment or offer them a wage comparable with that paid to workers in other industries. This country has been too mean in providing for the agricultural population. The country is riding for a fall .unless immediate action is taken." DOMINIONS "ENLIGHTENED." Mr. T. Peacock, the N.F.U. presdent, has addressed many farmers' meetingsin the past few weeks, invariably referring to the Sydney Conference and the Dominions. One of the best effects of that conference had x been to enlighten the Dominions as to the importance of home agriculture, he has said. Up to that time the Dominions imagined England as a nation of shopkeepers with agriculture as an infinitesimal part of the life of the country. They thought—their ignorance was appalling—that England would not live if they did not send their products over, but when they realised that Britain employed more men on the land than Canada and New Zealand put together, and that their output was 250 millions sterling, they agreed that the home farmer must have first place in his own market.