I do not know if the Ministry of Food's purchase
of eight pigs from mc last April counts as bulk buying, but if it does I am in agreement with critics of the practice. When I sent the pigs into market (where I am compelled to sell them to the Ministry of Food) they were all almost exactly the same size and averaged about ten score. After a longish delay, I received a much smaller cheque than I had expected. With it came a payment certificate giving specifications of the pigs purchased. These, though no doubt splendid animals in their way, were not mine, for they differed widely in size, and their average weight was just over six score. Research .disclosed that the correct procedure for me was to make a claim
for supplementary payment, certifying that I was an "aggrieved producer" and giving full particulars. I did this. Two months later a Ministry of Food official arrived in a car, checked the par- ticulars and went away. Last week, nearly four months having elapsed and Mr. Strachey still owing me fifty odd pounds, I asked the Livestock Control people in Reading how things were going. They very kindly rang up an official in Newbury, who rang up an official in High Wycombe, who said that the matter was being dealt with by the Ministry of Food's headquarters at Colwyn Bay. Read- ing then rang up Colwyn Bay, who promised to look into the matter and ring Reading back straight away. This was several days ago, and nothing more has been heard from any of these far-flung custodians of the nation's stomach. When I contemplate the over- heads carried by the original transaction, I feel less aggrieved as a producer than as a taxpayer who contributes to food subsidies amounting to over £400,000,000 a year.
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