The other day I applied to _his same Board of
Trade for an import licence in respect of six hawks and six racing pigeons. The Board of Trade granted a licence for the hawks but jibbed at the racing pigeons. "This request," they wrote, "has been the subject of very careful consideration by this Department in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and isheries," and "owing to the very stringmt position as regards feeding-stuffs" the six pigeons must remain in Germany. This shows how important planning is. You or I would probably have thought that to transfer six pigeons from the British Zone to the British Isles would not have made much odds. After all, the six pigeons, greedy birds though they are, could not make inroads on our food stocks which would be comparable to those made by the French race- horses, the Polish Army Corps, the ballet-dancers of various nationalities, and the other visitors whom we seem to take on our ration-strength without even consulting the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. This irresponsible attitude would probably have been enhanced by the reflection that wood pigeons, which visit these islands for the sole purpose of eating their heads off, import them- selves in millions without any form of licence. It is just this sort of slap-happy, come-one-come-all outlook that gets a country into trouble, and it is well for us that the planners in Whitehall are on the alert for unreflecting hotheads like me, who try to sabotage Mr. Strachey's calculations with our racing pigeons. I think I was darned lucky to get away with the hawks.
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