MEAT RATION CUT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 29, 3 February 1945, Page 5

MEAT RATION CUT

Action In Australia For Conserving Supplies HEAVY WAR COMMITMENTS Rec. 12.30. CANBERRA, this day. Australian civilians are to get approximately Jib less meat each week. The reduced ration scale will come into force on February 26—the same day that the egg priority plan begins. The meat ration reduction, which is being made because of the drought and Australia's war commitments, is estimated to save 40,000 tons of meat. It will reduce this year's civilian allocation to 530,000 tons. The present ration scale will be restored when improvement in seasonal conditions permits. In announcing the Federal Cabinet's decision to tighten the meat ration scale, the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, said Australian meat was fulfilling a vital war need in many countries. In the last few months new elements had come into the food picture. Britain liact come to Australia's aid with Pacific naval reinforcements and the British Pacific Fleet must be provisioned from Australian resources. Australia had also been requested to supply substantial quantities of meat to feed the Allied forces fighting in Burma. These demands were additional to earlier obligations to supply meat for British civilians and the Allied forces in the South-west Pacific.