816 Speech by the Minister of Agriculture. [Dec, 



SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF 

 AGRICULTURE AT LEICESTER. 



The following is the text of a speech by The Lord Lee of 

 Fareham. Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, at the de 

 Montfort Hall, Leicester, on Saturday, 16th October, 1920 : — 



LORD LEE : Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am 

 afraid it is some months since I last had an opportunity of 

 addressing a meeting of agriculturists. That has been due partly 

 to reasons over which I have had no control and partly to the fact 

 that I know that, during the harvest season at any rate, farmers 

 have something better to do than to be attending afternoon meet- 

 ings listening to words however wise, or however foolish, or, at 

 any rate, however eloquent. I know they have been very much 

 better employed. To-day, however, I am delighted to have this 

 opportunity of meeting so large and representative a gathering, 

 not merely of farmers, not merely of landowners, not merely of 

 labourers, but a gathering representing, as I believe it does . 

 fairly, the agricultural industry as a whole. (Hear, hear.) 



The Ministry of •Agriculture : Misconceptions as to its 

 Functions. — The first point that I want to make is that the 

 Ministry of Agriculture is concerned with the interests of the 

 industry as a v^hole, that it has no preferences or prejudices aa 

 between this or that section of the agricultural community. It 

 is anxious to help them all, so far as it can, because it knows, as 

 you must know, that each section is absolutely indispensable to 

 the others. I particularly resent the suggestion, because it is 

 grossly untrue, that the Ministry, whenever it takes some action 

 which may not commend itself to this or that section, is showing 

 an undue preference ; that it is throwing its weight in favour of 

 one section as against another, either in its administrative acts or 

 in the legislation which it is its business to introduce. I am 

 sure charges such as those are due, in almost every case, to 

 a genuine misunderstanding as to what the true functions of the 

 Ministry of Agriculture are, and what its relations to the industry 

 should be. In my experience there are two common but quite 

 opposite misconceptions as to the duties of the Ministry of 

 Agriculture. The first of them is that the Ministry wants, in 

 some way or another, to direct and control the whole of your 

 business, and to do that by means of interference by what is 

 commonly called. I think, an " army of inspectors from White- 

 hall." Apart from the fact that we have no accommodation for 



