16 JANUARY 1932, Page 2

Subsidized Wheat

Agreement in principle appears to have been reached regarding the quota for home-grown wheat as outcome of conversations in which the Minister of Agriculture, the farmers, the corn merchants, the millers—everyone, in short, but the consumer, who will have to pay more for his bread—participated. The mechanism whereby English farmers are to be paid for growing wheat that Canada and Australia can send us at two-thirds the price will be elaborate and complicated, and the result will be more work for more officials. No wonder Lord Brentford writes to The Times in alarm at the National Government's leap into Socialism. The millers have gained their point about buying home-grown wheat in an open market, and the farmer will get from the millets the difference between the price he sells at and the price the new Wheat Commission decides he ought to have. The millers will recoup themselves from the only possible source, the consumer.

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