TAPER AND THE FARMERS
SIR,—Taper, writing on June 27, ventures into the realms of agriculture. He may well be right that 'Bagpiper's Tump, which I swear on the ashes of my ancestors is in Herefordshire,' is there, that the Agricultural Bill is 'an admirable and overdue measure since the Daily Express is against it,' but I cannot allow him unchallenged to state: 'A sub- stantial proportion of my wages is taken from me every week in order to keep from ruin a number of farmers whom I have no desire whatever to keep from ruin and whose ruidwould in fact be of great benefit to the nation.'
I know Taper to be a harsh man but perhaps a sensible one when his own financial well-being is affected. So would-he please examine the facts listed below :
I. The value of the agricultural industry' output is around £1,500 million and is con- siderably greater than the value of the combined agricultural production of New Zealand and Australia.
2. Agriculture is the country's largest single industry. Its net output is 63 percent: above pre-war level. If 'this increased production had to he purchased from overseas, and 'if we could get it at present prices, it would require an expenditure of £400 million of additional foreign currency annually. Our average balance of pay- ments over the last five years has only been £163 million.
3. This £400 million of foreign currency is sufficient to pay for all the rubber, cotton, timber and iron and steel imported into this''
country or is equal to the value of all the im- ports of ships, cars, lorries, tractors, bicycles and aircraft.
4. British agriculture now feeds half of our population as compared to one-third pre-war despite a diminished labour force. Also farmers and their workers constitute less than 5 per cent. of the working population.
5. The cost of agricultural support is only Is. 10d. per head per week. (Does the Spectator really pay Taper so badly that this is 'a substan- tial proportion of my wages'?) The support system helps to maintain . our home agricultural output at a high level. Any reduction in output would force us to buy more food abroad at obviously an increased price for all our food re- quirements, which would lead to a rise in our cost of living. I would confidently maintain that should that occur Taper would ask for an increase in salary which due to his stupidity you should rightly refuse. —Yours faithfully,
DAVID SUMMERS
County Chairman of the Gloucestershire branch of the National Farmers' Union Little Barrow, Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos.
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