The 'Beet 'Subsidy's Cost The motion for the prolongation of
the sugar-beet subsidy' for another year, to give the Government time to resolve its hesitations about the future of the subsidy', provided the usual raking exposure of financial profligacy from 'one side of the HoUse, and some singular arithmetic from the other. 'The argument now current in defence of the subsidy policy is that the industry really gets hardly any 'help at all, because though it is 'relieved of half the duty levied on foreign sugar it pays the other half—in other words that the industry pays the Govern- ment in duty nearly as much as the Government pays the industry in subsidy. Government spokesmen 'them... 'selves, it must be recognized, have never resorted to this casuistry. They concern themselves with what the Government's beet sugar policy is costing the Treasury. It is costing it the whole amount of the subsidy, plus what is involved in the remission of half the duty paid by foreign sugar. The total to date, since 1924, is.between £50,000,000 and 160,000,000.
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