Such instances as we have quoted from Sir Malcolm Ramsay's
report only illustrate losses caused by the ladies of individuals. Larger questions of policy aro involved in such statements as that the leas on the recontrol of bacon was £5,700,000, on that of currants nearly a million sterling—s loss of 50 per cent. on the whole Government stock, due in large part to bad packing —and on Australian meat £3,000,000. It is incidentally mentioned that the total loss on the bread subsidy, since it was initiated in 1917, amounts to the gigantic sum. of £162,000,000. As these measures were mainly outcomes or aftermaths of the War, it may, of course, be argued that we should call such expenditures not losses but necessary expenses. Even so, their details warn us of the eostliness of committing such business transactions to the amateur tradesmen of Whitehall. We hope that the Public Accounts Committee will insist that further light shall be thrown on some of the transactions which Sir Malcolm Ramsay describes with scientific dispassionateness.
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