RUSSIAN ORDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 28, 3 February 1939, Page 8

RUSSIAN ORDERS.

HUGE WHEAT PURCHASES. AUSTRALIAN'S BENEFIT. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Russian orders on the Australian market for something like 2.500,000 bushels of wheat—more than a third of Xew Zealand's total crop last ,vcar —have aroused speculations as to the significance behind the purchase. Dropping like a bolt from the blue., tile Russian agents' orders were respoiisible for a sharp rise in the'price of wheat on the Sydney market on Saturday. Xew Zealand is interested in the purchase, because in years of shortage locally Xew Zealand buvs Australian wheat. To explain why Russia, one of the world s biggest producers of wheat, should buy so extensively in Australia! suggestion is advanced that the grain is needed to feed Russian armies in the East. Shipment is to be made to Vladivostok. The wheat, according to private advice received in Christcliurch, will comprise ten shiploads, or about 00,000 tons. A similar position arose last year, when Russia unexpectedly took 20,000 tons of Australian wheat.