35 



The limits of intervention were reduced to attempt- 

 ing the negotiation of our crop through the aid of Stat* 

 credit or finance, that is offering to sell our e.rojfon lonf 

 terms of payment, provided a reasonable price was paid 

 in return. 



THE FIXING OF A MINIMUM PRICE. 



Whatever were the effects sought by adopting thi 

 modus operandi for the disposal of the crop, they havt 

 not proved permanently beneficial, nor have the benefits 

 been equally distributed, for despite the fixing of an ade- 

 quate return for our wheat, of the minimum price at 

 whitih it should be acquired by those enjoying the ben- 

 efits of our credit, nothing was done to enforce the pay- 

 ment of the said minimum to the farmer. The measure 

 directly benefitted the grain merchants and the export- 

 ers, as was predicted at the time, and it only indirectly 

 proved of real effective benefit to the farmer. 



As I maintained vide "The Standard" at the time, 

 the moment the laws of supply and demand no longer 

 made it remunerative for all Allies to pay slightly more 

 for the crop which the difference between buying on 

 credit and against cash represented, they would not be 

 able to buy, that is, if the rest of the world was offering 

 wheat at cheaper prices than the minimum fixed, it would 

 be impossible to maintain the difference even if we of- 

 fered ten years credit Instead of ten months. 



That no such measure as a minimum price, without 

 the necessary storage places to back the market up, could 

 be maintained, and that as far as the disposal of the 

 superfluous crop was concerned we were only selling it t 

 our disadvantage instead of keeping it until prices mend- 

 ed, and only a terribly bad year in other countries could 

 save us, and if the rest of the world was favoured with a 

 good crop the disposal of our coming crop would be im- 

 possible at any price. 



We would have to keep it, and without places to keep 

 it, the State was deliberately running the risk of nullify- 

 ing her own good intentions by fixing a minimum price : 

 it was better to place a bounty on export of our cereal*, 

 and get rid of them at any price. 



These prognostications have proved only too well 

 founded . 



We have then the prospects of not being able to dis- 

 pose of the millions of tons of cereals, and I maintain 

 that we will not be able to sell them at all, if the war 

 conditions continue, or unless disaster overtakes the rest 

 of our competitors ; that the Government, far from being 



