The Farmers and the Government
The action of the National Farmers' Union in appealing to the Prime Minister over the head of the Minister for Agriculture on the eve of a debate on the whole question of farming costs and priCes in the House of Commons is badly misconceived. The debate itself will be welcome. The public is not well-informed on the matters that have stirred up so fierce a controversy between the N.F.U. and the Government—for Mr. Hudson is obviously not acting independently of his Ministerial colleagues in his decision about farm prices—and in the House of Commons all there is to be said on either side can be plainly stated, and the House and the public left to judge. The farmers have plenty of able spokes- men in the House of Commons, though one of them, Col. Heilgers, has been tragically removed from that scene by the Ilford railway accident. The farmers of the country as a whole have responded admirably to the Government's call and the country's need, and they are fully entitled to a due return for their efforts. But they are not entitled to an undue return. Even in these days of colossal expenditure some reprd must be had to the taxpayer. Any idea, for example, of a tacit understanding between farmers and farm labourers for repeated increases in the wages of the latter because "the Government will pay " would rightly arouse condemnation and resentment. As to the alleged breach of a pledge by the Government, the right place to clear that queStion up, as cleared up it must be, is on the floor of the House of Commons, not in public or private discussions with the Prime Minister.
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