In the House of Commons on Tuesday the Corn Production
Bill entered the Committee stage. On the first clause Mr. Shaw moved to amend the bonus szheme by paying the bonus for wheat and oats on the acreage cultivated instead of on the crops produced, and by limiting the bonus to new acreage in excess of what was tilled at the outbreak of war. He was supported by Mr. Runciman, who argued that the farmer should not receive a bonus on corn which he would grow in the ordinary course of his business. Mr. Prothero, while not rejecting the proposal to pay the bonus on the acreage instead of on the crop, stoutly declined to limit the bonus to new acreage, which would lead to the indiscriminate breaking up of grassland whether it was suitable for corn-growing or not. The amendment was rejected by the very satisfactory majority of 184 to 100. On Wednesday Mr. Prothero accepted an amendment, moved by Sir T. C. Warner, providing that the bonus should be paid in respect of every acre cultivated and producing a crop of wheat and oats, which will involve a somewhat greater liability than the original bonus on production. The first and crucial clause wan then adopted by a majority of 176 to 29.
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