The Milk Bill The Government's new Milk Bill, to be
introduced during the next fortnight or three weeks, has already aroused some opposition, though its details are not yet known. The Daily Express promises that 16,000 dairymen and nearly 70,000 farmers will combine to fight the Bill ; while Mr. A. V. Alexander has spoken against it on behalf of the Cooperative Society. The general purpose of the Bill is given by the Government's White Paper of last July, promising to reorganise the productive and distributive side of the milk industry and to establish a permanent Milk Commission ; it is asserted, on reliable authority, that the Bill will introduce, in an experimental form, a " block distribution " of milk supplies which will entail granting monopolies in given areas to the big combines or the C.W.S. Thus the Bill will be exposed at the same time to the criticisms those who object to monopoly in any shape or form, of the small dairymen whose " rounds " will be swallowed qp, and of the Cooperatives who will be hindered in ex- panding their distributive milk business, which already ,:ontrols 25 per cent. of the retail trade. Final comment nust wait for the details of the Bill. But in general it may ue said that any plan to reduce " overlapping " in distribution, o close the gap between producers' and consumers' prices, Ind effect the expected cut of id. a quart in the price of milk, is to be looked on with favour ; while the establishment a permanent Milk Commission, independent of the Marketing Board, has long been necessary in the interests the consumer and should be an effective safeguard against the dangers of " monopoly."
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