2 JUNE 1917, Page 3

We agree ; but we are afraid that his first

victims would have to be the Ministry. After all, it was not " fanatical " advocates of War Prohibition like the Spectator, but the Minister of Agriculture, who told us that we had become a "beleaguered city." Again, it was the Prime Minister who declared that our reserves of wheat had never in all our history been so short, and others of his dis- tinguished colleagues who informed us that unless we made great sacrifices and put forth every possible effort to conserve our food supplies we might perish by famine.