 case the difference is 10s. per qr. The farmer will have lost the difference, and the Minister tells us that that is intended, because the object of the Bill is to induce the farmer to sell at the best possible price, and market his wheat in the best possible way. If the argument 1147 rested there I admit it would be thorough, but you may have the price of wheat on the world market going up, and, although the farmer may be producing the best quality of wheat, and taking every reasonable precaution in regard to marketing, he may, although he has sold in the early part of the year at 25s. per qr., that still loses money because the level of the market has gone upwards. There is no provision in the Bill to meet that situation. I admit that the provision in the first part of the Bill is reasonable and necessary in providing that a farmer must produce marketable wheat, but there is no provision to meet cases where the markets move upwards in the course of the year.
We are told that the object of this Bill is to develop home-grown wheat of milling quality, but there is no provision which compels the millers to buy the wheat. It is true that in Clause 3 there is a provision to the effect that, after an Order has been made on the application of the Wheat Commission and the Minister, the Flour Millers' Corporation shall then be compelled to buy 12½ per cent. of the total production of the year. The result of that may be that the farmer may find himself with a wheat stock on his hands. The object of the Bill is to provide a secure market, but at the best it only provides a secure market for 12½ per cent. of the previous year's crop.
We have listened to-day to a very clear and able speech from the hon. and gallant Member for Maldon (Colonel RugglesBrise), and he estimated that the cost of the working of the machinery of Part II would not be more than a few pence per quarter. On that point, I am not so optimistic. We have to consider the expenses of the Wheat Commission and also of the Flour Millers' Corporation. The standard price has been fixed at 45s. per qr., but it is not at all likely that the farmer will get anything like the difference between the average price and the standard price. The producer will only get what is left after the expenses of the whole scheme have been deducted. Litigation has already been foreshadowed between the producers and the Flour Millers' Corporation, and this, together with the administration expenses, may reduce the 45s. to a much lower figure. The whole of this machinery has been set up in order to benefit a very small 1148 section of the farming community estimated to be about 4 per cent. What is going to happen to the other 96 per cent. of those engaged in the agricultural industry?
The hon. and gallant Member for Maldon foreshadowed that we might have a further system of quota for meat and bacon, and other agricultural products. I do not think that is likely to happen very soon. What the amount of the tax is going to be I do not know, but I understand that it will vary according to the market price of wheat. At any rate, it is intended to be a tax. The other quotas which have been mentioned would be equally a tax on agricultural products, and in the circumstances, quite apart from the usual fiscal arguments, that might prove to be a very serious thing, because it might tend to divorce the agricultural interest from the industrial interest, and raise the cost of living at a time when the pound is unstabilised, a state of things which might very well lead to the ruin of the agricultural interests and other interests in this country. There can be no justification for a Bill which purports to help the agricultural industry as a whole, but which really leaves the great mass of the agricultural industry—to the extent of 96 per cent.—out of consideration. To say that this Bill will assist the agricultural industry is a great exaggeration and a misuse of language, because it will do very little to assist it.
§ Major ALAN McLEAN
I would like hon. Members to visualise the position in which the Eastern counties of England find themselves at the present moment, and, particularly, the county of Norfolk for which I speak. In my county we find many bard-working farmers going through the bankruptcy court. Many other farmers, although they are still carrying on, are coming to the end of their resources. Farms are being given up in all directions, because it is impossible to find tenants for them. I have had a letter from the owner of a comparatively small estate in which he says that last year 5,000 acres of land were turned on his hands and he says that it was quite impossible for him to carry on farming on land to that extent. Many farmers are now going through the bankruptcy court after having been driven from their farms. It is also very serious to see the condition of the agricultural labourers 1149 who, in the past, have been dependent upon the land which has now ceased to be cultivated. The waves of past depression have left their mark on Norfolk, where you can see the marks of the old fences reminding one that the land in the past has been cultivated. This kind of thing is destined to go on unless we take immediate steps to assist agriculture.
5.30 p.m.
What happens at the present time? Land which cannot be cultivated as arable land goes down to grass gradually deteriorates and becomes absolutely valueless. The owner at the same time is handicapped by the cost of keeping up useless farm buildings. You cannot expect the landowner, whose land is not being cultivated, to keep up his agricultural buildings, and this is involving a tremendous waste of capital. Agricultural buildings are coming down, the farmers are despairing, and the labourers are losing their employment, and the problem which we have to face at the moment is that of finding remedies for this agricultural depression. If we allow it to go on, these skilled labourers will drift away to the towns on the chance of getting work there, and although possibly we might get capital back into agriculture fairly quickly if it becomes prosperous, it will not be so easy to build up again the skilled labour or to get the skilled farmers that we desire.
The relief must be quick and definite, and the relief that is given by this Bill is both quick and definite. That is why I support it. There are many points, naturally, that will require consideration in Committee, but there is one point on which I should like, if possible, to have some enlightenment even at this stage. It is with regard to the expenses of the scheme. The expenses of the scheme come out of the amount from which the deficiency payments are to be made to the farmers, and the farmers are anxious to know how much they are likely to lose in that way. They have very little control over the amount of the expenses. It is true that they will have representation on the Wheat Commission, but really the expenses will be outside their control, although they will have to pay them. If the Minister has any estimate of what the expenses are likely to be, it would be relief to the farmers to know what it is. The hon, Member for Cardigan (Mr. H. Morris) referred to the effect of 1150 selling at an unfortunate moment. It seems to me that it would be going altogether outside the province of this Bill to provide relief for a farmer who was unfortunate in his marketing, and, still more, to give him relief without his giving value for it. Therefore, I do not see how it would be possible, or even advisable, to help the farmer who was unfortunate in his marketing.
Mr. MORRIS
I do not want to protect the man who markets badly. I only want to protect the man who finds the market bad when he gets there.
Major Mc LEAN
I agree that that is the hon. Member's object, but I cannot see how it would be possible to attain it without at the same time relieving the man who markets his goods badly.
What is the alternative to this Bill? It has been suggested that we ought to revert to livestock production, but I agree with my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Maldon (Colonel RugglesBrise) that, although that may be possible in some cases, there are many cases in which it would not be advisable. We ought to support more strongly the production of livestock in this country, and we ought to help the growers of fresh fruit and vegetables, whom the present Government are already doing something to help; but, even if it were practicable to help agriculture by means of a changeover to livestock or any other branches, my objection to that course now is that the relief would not be quick, but is bound to take time, just as all the other measures which have been suggested in the Debate, and some of which are referred to in the Amendment of the Opposition—better organisation, better marketing, and so on—are bound to take time. I urge upon the House very strongly that, if we are going to save agriculture in the Eastern counties, we want very speedy relief indeed. Looking at the Amendment, one cannot help wondering how far those who drafted it remembered that the quota system was at one time strongly supported by the party opposite. They seem to be criticising a Bill the objects of which are to provide wheat growers with a secure market and an enhanced price—the very things which many Labour Members told the people in the country that their Bill would produce for farmers.
§ Sir STAFFORD CRIPPS
If the hon. and gallant Member will read the Amendment, he will see that it refers to those as the "sole objects" of the Bill. That is the whole point.
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