MINISTRY OF FOOD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7017, 9 February 1949, Page 11

MINISTRY OF FOOD

DESCRIBED AS “BRUTAL” SOCIALIST FARMER ATTACKS “UNBRIDLED RACKETEERING” Mr Hugh Quigley is a man of considerable and varied talents. He describes himself as an economist and farmer. He is a hard-headed Scot, educated at Glasgow University, where he took his degree with firstclass honours in French, German and Italian; after the first World War he joined Metropolitan-Vickers as an economist in the research department; he subsequently became head of the economic and statistical department of the electrical manufacturers’ association; for 13 years, to 1943, he was chief statistical officer of the Central Electricity Board. * He has written a formidable number of books on subjects ranging from cartels and monopolies to historical and philosophical treatises and including technical works on the use of electrical power and the industrial development of the Scottish highlands. A Prophecy To-day, at the age of 53, he devotes himself to farming in Hampshire and is a declared Socialist; but he is no longer friendly with the Socialists. He writes to The Recorder, a London paper:—“l can prophecy that, if the Government does not practice some more genuine form of Socialism in its handling of the national food requirements, it is in for a rude shock at the next election. “The most scandalous exactions of private enterprise are as nothing compared to the unbridled and uncontrolled racketeering that is now going on—defended and condoned by a complacent and brutal Ministry of Food.” These are strong words and carry added force because of Mr Quigley’s practical knowledge of economics and farming. The story starts, with a letter from Mr Quigley to The New Statesman in which he made a number of specific charges against Mr Strachey and the Ministry of Food. These included: — Potatoes 1. Hundreds of thousands of tons of English potatoes are lying undug in the fields. Few farmers have been able to sell potatoes since August, and imported potatoes are ruining a market “so gedevilled by Ministry of Food regulations that a magnificent crop may as well be written off now.” 2. The price of cauliflowers paid to the grower is Id to 2d each, but the public never pays less than Is to Is 6d. “It is at this very moment of maximum production that the Ministry of Food permits an enormous importation from France, Holland and Belgium.” Similar developments have occurred with practically every other vegetable. 3. Fruit is the subject of similar mishandling Australian apples, picked many months ago and now desiccated, have been dumped on the retailer in large quantities to the detriment of the English product. Retailers refuse English apples because if they do not accept the Ministry of Food’s allocation of imported apples they will receive no oranges, grapefruit and other fruit. 4. The sum of £6,000,000 was thrown away by the Ministry by paying artificial prices and incurring storage charges in Australia and in

Britain, and the consumer has had to pay 9£d per lb. for inferior Australian apples compared with 8d per lb, for English-grown. Apples 5. The retention of price control on apples has involved farmers in heavy capital losses on new packing centres established on the understanding that controls would be removed. 6. The public will receive no good apples or pears in 1948 or 1949 because the farmer cannot afford to grow them and imported fruit will be substituted which will be inferior in quality and should be used for the benefit of starving Europe. To all this the Director of Public Relations to the Ministry of Food replied: “Mr Quigley’s letter is a farrago of nonsense and mis-state-ments of fact from start to finish.” He asserted that no potatoes had been imported this year, that the farmers had been guaranteed a market from November Ist, that only 25 tons of cauliflowers had been imported, that there have never been enough eating apples to satisfy the lack of supplies of apples coming on the market justified the retention of price controls. The reply ended pontifically with: “What a pity Mr Quigley did not take the trouble to learn even the elementary facts of the situation before filling the New Stateman’s valuable space. But Mr Quigley is unrepentant, and to The' Recorder writes: “The reply of the Ministry of Food to my criticism based on incontrovertible fact is to put up a minor official to shout ‘lies,’ ‘pure invention,’ and generally to stall with statistics whose inaccuracy must be patent to everyone. “The import of 25 tons of cauliflowers for 1948 must appear grotesque to anyone who even visits Covent Garden in one morning. I counted over 100 tons one day last week alone. We have surely had enough of this kind of hoodwinking. Rigged “Imports have degenerated into such a racket that even potatoes have been wrung from countries like Spain. North Africa and the Canary Islands where the native populations are actually deprived of food. “Speculators and dealers in commodities at third, fourth and even fifthhand, armed with an open import license, are spending millions of pounds buying up crops of exotics, clementines, mandarines, pineapples, pomegranates, peaches, etc., and unloading them on the British public at incredible prices. “To even down the cost of fruit and vegetables the Ministry of Food imposes savage price controls on home-grown apples and pears, import thousands of tons of Australian apples and throw them on the market at the height of the English season. “The promise to take up surplus potatoes as from November Ist has no validity for early potatoes which have gone bad in dumps almost without exception. The potato crop has involved the community in enormous losses. “The entire market, with the active support of the Ministry of Food, is being rigged against the home producer and the consuming public.”