LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GROUNDNUT ACHIEVEMENT
SIR,—Mr. Jellinek's attempt to laugh off his reference to "1950" as "an obvious typing error " just won't do, for it was on this that he based his argument about the alleged promise of the Government to achieve the full programme of 31 million acres " in three years." If he meant to type "1952," then his argument just doesn't make sense. He now, moreover, seeks to build up another elaborate argument on the finances of the scheme based on his insistence, despite my previous correction, that the £8 million was additional to the original £25 million estimate. I can only reply by repeating that he is quite wrong, and the position was surely made clear in the Minister's answer on June 23rd when he informed the House that the total advances to the Overseas Food Corporation up to June 11th, 1948, amounted to £12 million, and this figure included not only the groundnut scheme in East Africa but also Queensland develop- ment. Even the earlier report which Mr. Jellinek read in The Times surely made it sufficiently clear that the £8 million was not additional to the £25 million, but was the total amount the Minister was expecting to expend up to the end of the financial year.
I have, of course, confirmed this with both the Ministry of Food and the Overseas Food Corporation, and Mr. Jellinek could have spared himself and myself some trouble if he had done the same. Isn't it about time
[This correspondence is now closed.—EotToa, The Spectator.]
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