§ Sir BERTRAM FALLEasked the Prime Minister if he is aware that the President of the Board of Agriculture made a statement in early January that the crop of 1917 potatoes grown in Jersey should not be subject to fixed pricing or commandeering, and that on that promise the Jersey farmer, who pays rents of from £14 to £18 per acre, planted every available acre; that fertilisers are very expensive in Jersey, labour scarce and highly paid, and that a fair minimum price per acre potatoes f.o.b. transport is, including rent, about £70; if he is aware that the War Office sent an Army Service Corps colonel to Jersey to bargain with the Committee of the Defence of the Island for the taking of half the 1917 crop from 15th June (best or ware potatoes only) at £8 6s. 8d. per ton, and that at this rate the result must be bankruptcy for the farmer, as the only question is how much he must lose per acre, and that it would be financially better for the farmer even now to plough up his potato land and grow roots, etc., for his cattle; and if he is aware that this bargain was obtained by the Army Service Corps colonel on the statement to the committee that in the event of his getting the potatoes at his price Government would see to it that transport would be obtained for the remaining half of the crop, but that otherwise it would not be so, that this authoritative statement was in the nature of a threat, and that the bargain was thus obtained by means which should not have the sanction of the Government; and if, under the circumstances, 2404W he will have a more equitable contract arranged, or if he will take the whole crop at cost price plus a percentage, seeing that at the end of May, June, and early July there will be practically no other potatoes to be had in this country?
§ Mr. FORSTERI have already answered the first part of my hon. Friend's question. The officer sent by the War Office was sent to purchase such quantity as he could on reasonable terms, and the amount acquired will probably be about one-third of the crop. He negotiated with the States Food Committee, who do not share my hon. Friend's opinion that the transaction would result in bankruptcy for the farmers, that it would be financially better to plough up his potato land or that the officer threatened the committee regarding transport. I am informed that a resolution ratifying the sale was recently submitted to a very large meeting of farmers, and that there were only four dissentients. At this meeting a statement which had previously been made that the transaction would involve a loss of £100,000 to the island was withdrawn.