Less Meat for More Money
Relief that the Anglo-Argentine trade agreement has been signed at last seems to have outweighed the urge to exact penance 'from the persons responsible for this latest retreat on the food 'front. There is certainly no disposition to blame the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Edwards, to whom fell the duty of signing a far less advantageous agreement than could have 'been obtained last year. But it must be recorded that in paying ''an average price of £128 12s. a ton for carcase meat, paying 'V0,500.000 in settlement of Argentine claims in respect of her sterling balances after the devaluation of the pound, and paying £6.250.000 to cover adjustments in the price of meat shipped in 1949-50, he inevitably aroused a suspicion in the City that he made an even worse bargain than he need have done. Yet if ' all these payments are regarded, both here and in Argentina, as a payment for the restoration of that goodwill which the • Minister of Food, by his foolish past statements, did so much to destroy, Mr. Edwards does not come out too badly. Mr. ,Webb has made a complete botch of his part in this affair, but 'there is little point in railing at him any more. He is so obviously "mystified by the whole business that he had better be left alone to think quietly over the process whereby he has got less meat for more money too late. But there is no reason why he should ' be allowed to go on occupying a desk at the Ministry of Food while he does it.
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