Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.1.3. Correspondence, Letters to newspapers
1943 Elizabeth Bobbett: Letter to the Standard, 19.03.1943
Men For the Land
Sir. Your Land Correspondent is to be congratulated on his recent articles regarding farm labour. Where are the men to come from? He states in reference to the grow more food meetings which have been attended in the various counties by An Taoiseach and the Ministers, to exhort us to grow more food, that “not one farmer in any of these gatherings of which we have read the reports in the daily Press seems to have had the hardihood to question An Taoiseach or his colleagues whether or not we will have any men left to do the reaping.”
I wish to state that I questioned Mr. Frank Aiken, Minister for Co-ordination of Defensive Measures at his meeting in Wicklow on this matter of shortage of farm labour and even stated that the matter we knew was very urgent in other countries, and that he should make some arrangements to have groups organised in the different areas to help save the harvest, but the Minister did not reply to my suggestions. The same matter was brought up by members of the Irish Farmers’ Federation at both the Navan and Mullingar meetings.
Dealing with the necessity for an increased price for our produce owing to the increased costs of production, the Ministers hold their own personal view that the prices we are receiving are good. They may seem good to men drawing four-figure salaries and who are not depending on the land for their living, but why deny our Irish men a living wage and force many of us to seek work in other countries, while our Government can pay 10/- per barrel more for Canadian oats than they are willing to give the Irish farmer, and they paid 84/- per barrel for foreign wheat while they would not give the Irish farmer 50/- till it was too late in the season to extend our acreage.
Last harvest we brought up the matter of the urgency of help to save the damaged crops in several counties such as South Meath, Longford and Roscommon, where the rains and floods had been very severe, but the Minister for Agriculture was unconcerned and refused to believe there was any shortage of man power for the work. Well now if your readers will look over the Agricultural Instructor’s report for Roscommon, you will see it refers to the amount of damage to crops owing to not being saved in time, etc.
A matter I also brought before the Minister at the Wicklow meeting was: why the extra charge of 4d per stone to country people on our flour as against those living in the cities and urban areas? But I got not answer. We country people grow and harvest the wheat and in many districts now there is not even a mill where we can get our own bit of wheaten meal ground; the mills have been closed up by Government order, while we must pay extra for our flour. Elizabeth F. Bobbett, General Secretary, The Irish Farmers’ Federation.