[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In the letter which
I addressed to you on April 5th, and you kindly published, I contradicted emphatically the allegation that we suggested to the B.B.C. that " all talks on agriculture should be first submitted to the N.F.U.," and I told your readers precisely what transpired in our communications with the Corporation. May I point out to your correspondent who signs himself " A Member of the Royal Agricultural Society," that he does not controvert my denial by quoting from the ill-informed criticism of the N.F.U. from which Sir W. Beach Thomas derived his inaccurate information ?
Every live organization has its critics and the N.F.U. is certainly not immune in that respect. Your correspondent, with a little research, could doubtless have extended the list, which he has culled from the pages of the Countryman, of those who on occasion have criticized this or that phase of the Union's activities. But we want no better tribute to the success of the Union's efforts than has been paid by the Editor of the Countryman himself in his book on The Story of the Women's Institute Morement. In that volume he dealt with the decline of the Agricultural Organization Society and the rise of the N.F.U. The Union, he pointed out, " won through by giving the platform, the magazines, and the reviews, the go-by. It rested its hopes on buttonholing farmers and on putting up a good thing to them. It was a trade union. The A.O.S. has gone under and the N.F.U. dwells in stability and merited success next door to an ex- Premier. It has never had a subsidy, but it has had the support which comes from appealing directly to the pockets of its subscribers. It promises them and has given them results, without ' uplift' or too much trouble to themselves. It is a business organization, composed of farmers, working for farmers." So long as the farmers of England and Wales support a business organization which gives them results, your correspondent need not attach over-much importance to isolated criticisms of its activities.—I am, Sir, &c.,
CLEVELAND FYFE, National Farmers' Union, London, W .C.1. Secretary.
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