918 



[Jan., 



desire that I should have the advantage of hearing the views of 

 this Council upon agricultural questions at the earhest possible 

 moment. 



Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have only this to say in con- 

 clusion, that I am most grateful to you for giving me this oppor- 

 tunity of welcoming you on the occasion of your first Meeting, 

 and of assuring you once again, which assurance I am sure you 

 will accept, that I want this to be a real Council, a real advising 

 body; I do not want it to be in any sense merely a debating 

 society. If it is your desire that on any future occasion or 

 occasions I should attend in order to hear your advice or to give 

 you an expression of the views of the Ministry on any matter, 

 I shall be entirely at your disposal. When I say " I shall be " 

 I mean not only myself, but all my staff at the Ministry will 

 make it their business to come here and to give you every assist- 

 ance and advice in their .power. (" Hear, hear.") 



LOKD BLEDISLOE :— My Lord, before the Minister of 

 Agriculture leaves us I should like to propose a sincere vote of 

 thanks to him for his presence here to-day, and for the encou- 

 raging words with which he has inaugurated what he has so 

 properly called the new Agricultural Parliament. There is one 

 statement he made which I think must have brought a great 

 sense of relief to the minds of many here present — that in spite 

 of any appearances which the platform might convey to our 

 minds it is his intention that this body shall be perfectly free as 

 an Agricultural Parliament to express its own unfettered views 

 on the subjects that come before it. I am quite certain, if I may 

 tell his Lordship so. that he will derive more real benefit from 

 our dehberations if we have a consciousness that we are free to 

 deliberate according to our own ideas and on matters upon which 

 we may entertain Bather strong views without being in any sense 

 dictated to from Whitehall. J take this opportunity of saying 

 to Loi'd Lee that, although we may not all agree with all his 

 views, we do recognise in him a real champion of the industry 

 in which we are all interested. We all recognise his extreme 

 coui"tesy, his obvious fairmindedness. and his great courage in 

 dealing with somewhat difficult and sometimes very delicate 

 questions. If I may say so, for myself. I hope we may alwavs 

 find presiding over the new Ministry of Agriculture as capable 

 and able and fairminded a man as Ijord Ijee of Fareliam. 



liord Lee referred to the Federation of Agricultural Executive 

 rV)nunittees over which I have had the honour of presiding for 

 tb<' !;ist two years. We have no desire to perpetuate our exist- 



