Two Ministers, Two Views ?
Some little stir has been caused by an apparent conflict of views as expressed by Mr. R. S. Hudson, Minister of Agriculture, and Mr. Harcourt Johnstone, Secretary of the Overseas Trade Department. There is a point of policy involved which ought to be cleared up, as it has a direct bearing on the scale of agricultural wages and prices, and doubts about it might seriously shake the confidence of farmers. Mr. Hudson said last week that it was the cry of cheap food which had depressed agricultural wages, and he added that the great agricultural countries would only be prosperous enough to buy our exports if we paid them a decent price for the food they supply. Mr. Harcourt Johnstone, on the other hand, said that if cheap-food days do not return, neither will our exports. It was the Government policy, he said, to maintain the present structure of agricultural prices for twelve months after the war, but not to promote an artificially high level of costs as against our export competitors. From Mr. Johnstone's speech the farmer might well conclude that his prices a year or more after the war will not be guaranteed, an the farm-worker might conclude that his improved wage is a short-lived advantage which he will not always enjoy.- These apparently discordant views show the necessity, which we pointed out a fortnight ago, of thinking now in terms of the post-war economy of agriculture. And that must be done on-a world-scale, in that close .co-operation, particularly with the United States, ipf which Mr. Winant spoke -at Liverpool on Wednesday.
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