"SERIOUSER AND SERIOUSER"
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It was a pretty thought to celebrate, as the Government have done, the centenary of the birth of the 'author Of Alice in Wonderland. Let us pray that the country will have seen the last of the Premier's fun when Parliament again assembles; for in truth the situation grows seriouser and seriouser." Much of that seriousness is plain to see, but I have been surprised that no one has sought to disturb the mystery which envelops like a Scottish fog Sir John Gilmour's juggling with the people's bread.
Why, to begin with, Sir John Gilmour, a minor Minister.? Surely, this question of the bread supply of Great Britain is important enough to merit the Premier's personal attention ? And why the secrecy, the comings and the goings, the conclaves at the Ministry of Agriculture, the solemn emptiness launched into the Press ?
The public wants to know what is happening. It is rum- oured that the proposal is to compel the millers to buy 6,000,000 quarters of home wheat a ye'ar itt 15s. extra a quarter. The extortion of that additional £4,500,000 is indeed a sinister proposal enough ; but it is not the wheat quota idea as hitherto-understood. It is frankly a levy put on the millers to subsidize the farmers because the Government did not dare (at least until last week-end) to set up a tariff on foreign wheat. If the British farmer is to be put on the dole, let us at least do
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