BRITAIN'S FOOD PROBLEM.

Northern Advocate, 26 February 1925, Page 4

BRITAIN'S FOOD PROBLEM.

The Royal Commission which for some mont'hs past has been investigating the question of food prices in Great Britain seems to have gathered an enormous mass of widely varying evidence, which may or may not enable the Government to solve some of the problems associatted with the food supply of a large population. In the opinion of a correspondent of the London "Times," the people of the Old Country have awakened to the "glaring contrast between the price which the producer gets for his goods and the price the ordinary consumer has to pay for the same article." An instance is given of two ex-servicemen who cultivated five acres of land within , a mile of a flourishing seaside town, and by working hard through the winter and spring got very good crops of potatoes and vegetables in the summer. They sold nearly all their produce to retailers, yet when they were getting a penny each for cabbages the consumer was paying fourpence, and with, nearly every ordinary vegetable, except potatoes, t'he same ratio ruled. There was no intervention of a wholesaler, but if these producers sold direct to hotels trouble arose. Cases of this kind are very common not only at Home but elsewhere, and while they do not very materially illustrate the main difficulty of the food problem, fhey serve as testimony to the part retailers play. It is, of course, the workers who complain chiefly of high prices, and it was on their ■behalf that the Trades Union Congress recently proposed a system of centralised purcha.se of wheat and meat, and arrangements with organised producers of the Dominions '' for aecur-

ing a definite portion of the Dominions' output at fair prices, to be fixed in advance; also the establishment of an international economic commission as a part of the League of Nations to examine the permanent machinery of international combines, and elaborate methods for their control, and to provide machinery for the co-operation of public organisations which plight be established by different nations for the purchase of foodstuffs." Theoretically, although the scheme amounts to a tall order, the idea is somewhat taking, but it is to be feared that in practice it would be unworkable. In the first place it would be quite impracticable for the Dominions' producers to attempt to arrange for supplying the working classes with (say) beef direct without the intervention of either wholesalers or retailers. The only feasible system is to sell in bulk, and if any attempt were made to do otherwise the trade would soon make it a failure. It is, however, possible that the trades unions, with their vast backing and strong organisations, could devise a scheme for parcelling the Motherland into convenient districts where, with the assistance of local authorities, the Government and the railways, : open markets could be established for the sale of the produce from the Dominions on a co-operative system. That plan would involve both selling and buying organisations. It would not be difficult to ascertain the appro .ximate requirements for each market and the matter of distribution ought to present no insuperable obstacles. The idea of buying direct from the Dominions' producers at fixed |>rices is unTikefiy to eventuate owing to the fluctuations in market priccs, as _ the producers naturally expect to obtain the best rates offering, but it is open to the trades unions to set up a system of first-hand buying in the open markets, a course Avhich should prove to be to the advantage of both producers and consumers. It is probable that oil some such lines as f'uv.e ihc problem could be satisfactorily" solved.