THE BEET SUGAR MILLIONS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] your footnote to Mr. Impy's letter, you state that " so far about 110,000,000 has been spent on the beet subsidy " and that " the subsidy is costing £7,000,000 a year."
These statements are completely untrue. If you refer to the Greene Report (Table XX, pp. 34-5) you will see that : (1) The Subsidy, from 1924-34, cost exactly £30,112,077— that is, nearly 120,000,000 'less - than the figure you give 1 (2) The average cost of the subsidy per annum since 1931; when it was reduced to its present level of 6s.- 6d. per cwt., was £2,580,000—that is, less than a half of the figure you mention.
Further, I suggest that some consideration ought to be given to the inevitable losses which will fall, directly and indirectly, on the State if the beet-sugar industry is allowed to die out, as its many critics appear to contemplate with equanimity and, in some cases, even enthusiasm. It is, of course, impossible to estimate the whole of such losses, but an estimate, in round figures, of the chief items may be made as follows :—
(1) Unemployment Pay.-2,200 permanent factory workers will be unemployed. 6,800 " campaign " workers (for 20 Weeks) will also be unemployed during the winter months. The agricultural unemployment will be equivalent to at least 20,000 full-time workers. Allowing a figure of £1 per head per week, the cost will amount to about £1,300,000 per annum.
(2) Compensation to Farmers.—The Greene Committee's recommendations will cost about £2,400,000 in three years.
(3) Loss of Income Tax.—The factory companies alone paid over £280,000 in 1930. We may safely estimate this loss at not less than £1,000,000 in three years.
(4) Repayment of Guaranteed Loan Capital.—The State guaranteed the loan capital of several companies and the amount outstanding, according to the Greene Report, is in the region of £1,300,000.
If, therefore, we consider the first three years of the period after the abandonment of the Beet Sugar Industry, we may see that the losses to the State will amount to at least
£8,300,000, quite apart from losses of revenue in connexion with industries dependent on the Beet Sugar Industry for a substantial trade, e.g. the bag-making industry, the coal and coke industry, the transport industry, Sre. This figure averages out at £2,750,000 per annum, and may be compared with the average of the subsidy for '1931-4 which was £2,580,000.
I therefore disagree profoundly with your advocacy of the abolition of the subsidy and, until my calculations are shown to be incorrect, I shall continue to maintain that such a policy would be disastrous to everybody concerned.—Yours, J. STEWART COOK. The School House, Sproughlon, Suffolk.
[Our figures were accurate. The term " subsidy " was used, as it commonly is, for brevity and convenience, to include both the direct subsidy and the indirect subsidy represented by abatements of duty. The Greene Committee gives the total Under this head as £40,292,077 for the years to 1933-4, and £7,300,000 for the year 1934-5. We are now in the financial year 1935-6.—ED. The Spectator.]
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