Farming a la Mode
Mr. G. Odium was the owner of Manor Farm, Manningford, Wiltshire, from 1926 to 1942. It was a well-equipped farm, with a very famous Friesian herd, built up by Mr. Odium. When the war came he had to reduce his herd and was forbidden to grow fodder. In 1941 and early 1942 he asked for assistance in dfaining his fields but did not get it. In July, 1942, he sold the farm for L60,000 ro Mr. R. S. Hudson, then Minister of Agriculture. Immediately after- wards the Catchment Board cleaned out the river and lowered its bed. The local War Agricultural Committee improved the drains, ploughed the land and allowed Mr. Hudson to grow as much fodder as he liked. But when Mr. Odium discovered, in August, 1943, that the farm had been described to press correspondents as in very poor condition when Mr. Hudson took it over he had had enough. He sued Mr. Richard Stratton, chairman of the Wiltshire War Agri- cultural Committee for libel. Mr. Stratton accepted responsibility for the statement, but it was written by Mr. William Thomas Price, chief executive officer of the committee. In awarding £500 damages to Mr. Odium, Mr. Justice Atkinson described a statement by Mr. Price that the Minister of Agriculture could be distinguished from Farmer Hudson as " sheer humbug," a statement by Mr. Price that Mr. Odium was an obstructionist as " a lie," a letter of explanation written by Mr. Price to the Ministry of Agriculture as " disgraceful and malicious" and the reason given by counsel for a refusal by the Ministry of Agriculture to tell the judge the grading of Manor Farm as " contrary to the truth." But there is surely no language permissible in court which can describe the last stage of this incident. The L500 damages and costs will be paid not by Mr. Stratton or Mr. Price, but by the Ministry of Agriculture (i.e., the taxpayers).
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