A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE modest Bacchanalia held in the, four wine-growing departmend of Languedoc last week seems to have been enjoyed by all. As a protest against the French Govern- ment's refusal to buy their surplus stock, wine-growers barri- caded the roads, initially perhaps in wild indignation but latterly, owing to the barricades being made of wine barrels, in a spirit of cordiality. This cordiality, though tempered with resolution —none save the sick and those tending the sick were allowed to pass—took the form of offering frustrated travellers glasses of wine from broached barricades, and though for many square miles traffic was at a standstill the police, drafted quickly into the area, were not able to find anyone to clash with. Libertd there was none, but Fraternite and Marseillan abounded, In this country there is an annual recurrence of wails from farmers, fruit growers and market gardeners who cannot find a profitable market for their surplus goods, but it is sincerely to be hoped that they will confine their protests to paper. To encounter a block across the Evesham-Gloucester road and be rewarded, after hours of patient waiting, with a bag of plums would arouse no feeling of ,conviviality in the British breast.
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