Two other cases quoted in Sir Malcolm Ramsay's valuable report
show how little check there seems to be on the muddling away by incompetent officials of sums which would be regarded as decidedly important by the majority of private traders. With regard to the less of £143,000 incurred by the Ministry of Food in the resale of cattle-feeding stuffs, a Treasury letter is quoted which states that the proceedings at an interview between certain officials of the Ministry and the representatives of a private firm "showed a lamentable lack of precision, for which It is impossible to relieve the officers of the Ministry of responsibility." Another loss on cattle-feeding stuffs of £122,000 is stated to be "mainly attributable to the failure of the admini- strative officer concerned to pass on to the consumer the charges incurred in respect of the storage and transport of feeding-stuffs as directed by the Treasury." And let it be remembered that these little mistakes did not take place under the pressure of War, which might have explained if not excused them, but at least two years after the War was over. There are numerous less glaring instances in this Blue Book which recall to us Lord Emmott's conviction that the qualities needed for the successful prosecution of commerce "cannot be produced in their higher" —or even in their simplest—" forms by any system of State-made training."
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