1920.] 



Speech by Minister of Agriculture. 



329 



something must be done to check tliis, what I can only call, 

 disastrous tendency to reduce the arable area in some districts. 

 It is for that reason mainly that these powers to control 

 cultivation are given to the County Agricultural Committees. 

 They must have those powers, and I wish to make it quite clear 

 that I intend, in so far as I have the power, and in so far as 

 the Government have the power, to stick to this part of the Bill. 

 But, concurrently, we see the importance of giving every assist- 

 ance to the improving of existing grass lands. The Ministry 

 has engaged in a very extended and important campaign 

 with this object in view. I think many of you may have 

 already seen something of it ; but I should like to say how 

 much you all owe to the devoted and unremunerated work 

 which is being done in this connection by Professor Somerville, 

 Professor Stapledon, Mr. Jenkin, Professor Gilchrist and 

 others, who are devoting their time to going about the 

 country^ assisting farmers with their advice and practical 

 demonstrations. 



The Food Outlook. — I only want to say by way of conclusion 

 that I have been accused of scaremongering " in connection 

 with this Bill in order to try aAd assist its passage ; that is to 

 say, I have been charged with trying to frighten the people to 

 believe that we may be short of food in this country when as 

 a matter of fact there is no such fear. I hope there is no fear 

 that we may have to go short ; but at any rate I honestly 

 believe — if I did not believe it I would not say it — that there 

 is real cause for anxiety about the wheat supply of the world 

 in the coming year and the years to follow. I know the evi- 

 dence is very conflicting ; I know the prospects are necessarily 

 uncertain ; I know there are many people interested one way 

 or the other in giving this or that aspect of the facts. But m}^ 

 main contention is that there is not anybody who really hiows 

 what the food position is going to be in the world in the next 

 twelve months. That being so, my policy at any rate, and I 

 say the only sane and sound policy, is that we should take no 

 avoidable risks. (Hear, hear.) It is quite true that I doubt, 

 even with all the assistance that may be given to us by 

 Rothamsted and the scientists, that we should evj?r be able to 

 make ourselves fully self-supporting, in the ordinary sense, 

 in this country. But I am quite clear from the experience of 

 the War — and I am glad to see that Lord Ernie in his article to 

 which I have just referred agrees with mc — that we could 

 without doubt grow enough food in this country, on our own 

 soil, to enable us to support ourselves on a system of strict 



