From The Luton Reporter: Wednesday, October 31st, 1917.

Luton Industrial Co-operative Society officially joined forces with the local Trades and Labour Council in a meeting at the Co-operative Hall on Wednesday night to protest against the constitution of the local Food Committee, and the occasion was marked by vigorous retorts to observations made at the Luton Town Council meeting the previous night, and particularly strong criticisms of some members of the Town Council.

Mr T. H. Knight, who presided, recalled that when some months back the Trades and Labour Council forwarded a protest with regard to the proportion of representation on the Food Committee some remarks were passed as to who the Trades Council were, representing only 5,000 members. Someone - with courage, he admitted - got up to be the butt and claimed that he represented directly 10,000 members. The returned issued by the Executive Officer showed that hehad received applications from 13,657 persons, and this meant to him that the other 3,657 were represented by the other 23 aldermen and councillors of the borough. He claimed that as the Trades Council represented 5,000 persons and the Co-operative Society 7,000, they were the people to represent the people of Luton.

At the Town Council meeting on Tuesday night he regretted it was necessary for a prominent citizen to insinuate that the Trades Council had lost confidence in their representative on the Food Committee. Any delegate appointed by the Trades and Labour Council enjoyed the full confidence and support of that body after he had been elected, and they did not appreciate any insinuations made that otherwise could be the case.

Further, if any correspondence sent by the Trades Council to the Town Council was not worth the while of the person affected to reply to, they took up the same attitude - that, as the time of the Trades Council representative was wasted at meetings of the Food Committee, it was not worth while to send him and they claimed the right to withdraw that candidate.

The Trades Council, with the Co-operative Society, were sufficiently strong to command due respect and consideration, and they were determined that when the time came they would have that respect with full confidence in the support of the electors of the district.

Mr W. J. Mair moved a resolution protesting against the constitution of the local Food Control Committee, believing that a committee composed mainly of persons interested in the maintenance of profiteering in the people's food supplies was not fitted to consider the interests of the community and demanding that the majority of the committee should be those representing the interests of the consumer.

This meeting, he remarked, was not merely a protest meeting but a revolution - somewhat unusual for Luton. It was a revolt against the old gang who considered the position they held was a position assigned to them by divine right and who considered it a piece of gross impertinence for anyone to challenge their position. They held their office simply and solely because they were illegitimate offspring of that notorious flirt "Dora". They represent no-one but themselves, and they misrepresented those who in the days of long ago sent them there.

On the local Food Control Committee they had Mr Primett, a retired grocer and a most estimable gentleman, but one who undoubtedly knew how many beans made five; Alderman Wilkinson, who had made a little bit of money in Luton and had taken up farming as a hobby and wished to pose as an agricultural expert; Councillor Attwood, a retired builder, who asked in the Council the other week if the Trades Council thought they were looking after the working classes - he could be the last person to accuse Councillor Attwood of such a crime; Councillor Yarrow, a retired engineer whose one and only qualification for such a position was that he had made enough money in engineering to retire, despite trades unions; and, last but not least, Councillor James Bone, the well-known local 'Bumbles,' that prehistoric patriarch who said 'You shan't drink anything but water'.

Mr Mair held that the committee as constituted was not in the interests of the consumer, and those who had been bled almost blood white by the profiteers demanded the right to sit upon the committee, and in their interests assist in the food distribution and control of prices.

Mr W. H. Barton, Chairman of the local Co-operative Society, seconded, and said his Society still felt they ought to have on the Food Committee the two members they nominated, because they had nearly 7,000 members and that number represented considerably more mouths to fill because their members were largely householders.

They did not doubt the efficiency or the sincerity of the councillors serving on the committee, but they believed they could find plenty of work on the various committees constituted in the town in connection with their work, and leave some of this work to other bodies. They believed if this was done the people of Luton would look upon it more favourably and have more faith and trust in the committee.

One thing which the Co-operative Society questioned was the qualification of the lady member [the Mayoress] on the committee. They would not have objected to her 'priming' her husband and giving him instructions and suggestions for carrying on this work there, but they thought it would have been better to have appointed some lady more in touch with the usual working class household and its requirements.

Mr W. J. Mabley, in supporting, drew attention to The Luton Reporter's report of the comment made by "a man commonly known as the Mayor of Luton" that "they had not sent a sufficiently strong man," and announced "for the information of Jack Staddon and his crowd" that the Trades Council would not look amongst them for a strong man. The Town Council, he said, were not a body representing the electors, and the working classes would get no control of food until they were prepared to take the whole thing in their hands, and say they were going to have it whether the other people liked it or not.

Had they ever witnessed such a cosmopolitan crowd to control food as had been appointed in Luton? If they were going to control food the same as they had controlled land in the district it was going to be a good thing for them.

Messrs A. A. Warren and C. Clark also supported the resolution, which met with unanimous endorsement, as did another, proposed by Mr Mabley and seconded by Mr P. S. Neil, demanding prompt action in commandeering food and distributing it on the basis of families without regard to purchasing power, and the suspension of profiteering on food during the war.

In proposing the second resolution, Mr Mabley referred to the action taken by the Trades Council in regard to the raising of rents by landlords, and said that amongst the landlords exploiting the people who paid rent was a man who sat on some of the local bodies.

The Labour Party determined to prosecute in those cases, and when that landlord 'saw the red light' he immediately called his tenants together and paid them back all excess rent they had paid.