OUR FOOD SUPPLY IN TIME OF WAR 317 



Commissioners whether or not in their opinion a 

 modification — and what modification — of our present 

 fiscal system would give a key to the solution of the 

 problem of feeding the people in times of war. 



As it is, a report is presented covering sixty-three 

 pages of a Blue Book, signed by all the members of the 

 Commission, and followed by about a dozen minority 

 statements, containing reservations, qualifications, and 

 supplementary reports — making altogether a very 

 inconclusive and confusing document. The corn 

 trade, shipping trade, and commercialism gener- 

 ally, appear to have governed the inquiry, and the 

 question as to whether or not a sufficient stock of 

 wheat in war time could be secured by the improve- 

 ment of agriculture seems to have received no con- 

 sideration. To ordinary men it seems incredible that 

 during such a long inquiry, conducted by able and 

 painstaking men, not one glance should have been 

 cast in the direction in which it is most likely a 

 remedy could be found for the evils they were con- 

 sidering — a remedy natural, commonplace, and effec- 

 tive : that of increasing the yield of our own fields. 



The largest section of the Commission reports in 

 favour of some system of national indemnity which 

 would provide that the State should indemnify ship- 

 owners and merchants for the capture or destruction 

 of their ships and freights. The necessity for a 

 scheme of this kind is fully dealt with in a letter 

 written by Mr. Leverton Harris. Mr. Harris states: — 



" It is sufficient to point out that every British 

 vessel will be liable to be sunk, burnt, or captured by 

 any enemy's cruiser. . . . No one doubts that all our 

 opponent's energies will be directed against our over- 

 sea trade ; it will not be by invasion but by starvation 



