Groundnuts Again
Once more the administrators of the groundnuts scheme have proved impossible to work with. The decision by one of the three big contractors engaged by the Overseas Food Corporation, Taylor Woodrow Ltd., to ask for a release from their contract, is based on the same fundamental discontent which has already led to the resignation of many of the ablest individuals connected with the scheme. The trouble is not simply that this firm disagrees radically with the way in which the Corporation is putting its plans into action, but equally that the machinery for getting its views an adequate hearing seems non-existent. All this amounts to the by now familiar charge of a lack of confidence, felt, it is alleged, by all ranks of the firm's employees. Once again this lack of confidence is coupled with faith in the essential value and ultimate success of the groundnuts scheme—a faith which, of course, only makes the immediate disillusion more bitter. It must now be perfectly plain to everybody that the malaise which afflicts the groundnuts scheme is not one that can be solved by reassuring Ministerial statements, or even by rain. It is much more a crisis of morale than of plan- ning, and therefore primarily concerns men and not methods. Taylor Woodrow make the serious charge that they were unable to obtain an interview with the chairman of the Corporation, Sir Leslie Plummer, to urge their point of view. There may be a convincing answer to this charge, though the first official reaction to the rupture of the contract has been typically ungracious. The evidence seems, however, to confirm the previous belief that the first step towards a restoration of confidence in the groundnuts scheme must be the elimination of Sir Leslie Plummer.
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