Ordeal by Butter

No man likes the taste of butter "straight" less than His Majesty's bantamweight, peppery Secretary of State for Dominions & Colonies, the Rt. Hon. Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery. None the less, Mr. Amery let a great deal of butter melt on his short, sharp tongue, the other day in London, tasting samples at the Australian Butter Show. Prizes had been offered by the Orient Steam-- Navigation Co., Ltd. (whose packets ply to Australia) for "the best export butter"--one which would still be "best" after the 13,000-mile voyage to England. Each sample had been point-scored when shipped from Sydney, was scored again on reaching London by judges whose lips soon grew greasy. Wiping his own thin, determined lips after the ordeal by butter, Mr. Amery spoke cautiously on the question whether His Majesty's Government in Great Britain would grant imperial (tariff) preference to Australian butter. "Any such policy of preference," said the Secretary, "must be based on quality. We can never ask the people of this country in the long run to pay a high price for the mere sake of Empire preference unless the butter offered them is of the highest quality. After my experience today I have only praise for the quality of Australian butter."