THE 'SPECTATOR' ON EIRE SIR, — As an absentee Eirean, like Mr.
St. John Ervine, I know enough of the country whose hospitality he and I presently enjoy to suggest that its agricultural policy should he designed to secure its essential requirements of food from the cheapest sources within the sterling area. An efficient agricultural system in Britain must, necessarily, be a small one, unless Britain contracts her standard of living until it can be sustained in self-sufficiency on an allotment economy.
In my article I suggested that a diversion to producers elsewhere of part of the expendi- ture on agricultural subsidies at home might increase the amount of food available in Britain or enable the existing amount to be obtained at lower cost. The immediate bene- ficiaries would be the British consumer and the British export trade. If Mr. St. John Ervine shares my faith in Britain's industrial future, he need have no doubt that a diversion from British agriculture of resources now wastefully invested would benefit the British farmer in the long run rather than ruin him. — 'Yours faithfully,
Peterhouse, Cambridge
PATRICK LYNCH
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