THE. MEAT MARKET

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1943, Page 4

THE. MEAT MARKET

The Minister of Supply (Mr. Sullivan) has warned butchers that those found breaking the Meat Price Order will be prosecuted promptly. When controls are applied there is always the possibility of hardship or inconvenience to one party or the other, but direct action is not a good way to se"cure equality (it favours the strong against the weak) and is always to be deplored. The Minister rightly stands against such courses, but his reply to the Master Butchers' Association is less satisfactory in its proposals for removing the butchers' grievances. We cannot agree that the butchers, acting as an association, have the remedy in their own hands. When retail prices are fixed by State action, it does seem anomalous that wholesale prices are not similarly fixed. There are difficulties' in the way, such as inequalities in the wholesale market, but there does not seem to be any good reason why these should not be smoothed out. It might be, necessary to ask butchers to accept a small margin of profit at certain times of the year, but this could be compensated' by a wider margin at other times. In this way the interests of both the retailer and the consumer would be safeguarded. Mr. Sullivan has suggested that the butchers can overcome the present difficulty by co-operation within their own ranks. A better approach, however, would be for the interested parties, including the State, to co-operate in an endeavour to arrive at some plan that would enable wholesale as well as retail prices to be subject to a rule. There are three sections whose interests have to be safeguarded —the producers/the butchers, and,the consumers. What is needed is a comr bined effort to overcome an admittedly difficult situation, an effort that would remove the causes of talk of direct action and prosecutions.