OFFICIAL ENCOURAGEMENT FOR FAMINE.
[To Ms EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—In your article on "Victualling the Nation" you say that If the Government had left the problem alone, "high prices and a free market would have drawn food supplies here like a magnet." And later on you refer to the shortage of potatoes and the effect of fixing prices for them. As a concrete instance, I may say that seine years ago I was fortunate in procuring a small quantity of potatoes from New Zealand, which reached this country when the market was bare, and the venture was not unprofitable. Last autumn it was evident that potatoes were going to be scarce, and I advised my friends in the Dominion to ship some home if they could do so. But a few weeks later, as prices had been fixed by Government, I cabled to New Zealand that such a shipment was unadvisable. I think now it would have been better for this country if the potatoes had been shipped even to be sold at a high price, and it would be a satisfaction to increase the nation's fcod supply; but if this can only be done at a loss, such a source of supply is naturally left alone.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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