Monty Defines Belly-Ache'

Northern Advocate, 28 August 1947, Page 3

Monty Defines Belly-Ache'

Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery spoke recently to the annual meeting of the Federation of Young Farmers —2OOO young people, whose ages ranged from 13 to 25, and who represented 12,000 farmers’ clubs from all over England. The young farmers, all of whom have farming very close to their hearts, thrashed out in debate the future policy of their clubs and then settled down to hear “Monty” talk about farming, a subject with which he had not previously been associated. This is something of what he said: “I’m a soldier, I’m not a farmer. But I’ve learnt during my life that it is possible to apply usefully the rules for successful war to most professions. “I’ll go through them, and then we’ll try and relate them to your job, which is farming. “I would say that probably the first rule for success in war is thinking and planning well ahead—and I can tell you that during the late war I used to think ahead very seldom less than six months. SORT OUT ESSENTIALS “Now the next point would be. I think, that in war—l think this applies to everything you do in life —ybu’ve got to sort out the essentials. "You mustn’t let other people what I call belly-ache; very good word, belly-ache. “It doesn't mean what some of you mean. “My. definition of the word bellyache is inventing poor reasons for not doing what you’ve been told to do—that’s belly-ache. “I don’t need to be a farmer myself to realise what a progressive and prosperous farming industry means to this country of ours at the present time. “It means everything—in terms of ample supplies, not only of food but of men and women; men and women who have been brought up, rooted in the soil of Old England—and as long as we can do that this country will never look back.”