ARGENTINE COMPETITION.

Bush Advocate, Volume XIII, Issue 2184, 27 January 1902, Page 2

ARGENTINE COMPETITION.

The hnpbrtarceof the "subject is the only apology we^have to offer for again referring to the question of Argentine competition, which is altogether too serious a matter to be treated with indifference. The War Office lately accepted a tender from a large company (which includes some South African millionaires) for supplying the army in South Africa with meat, aud these people have arranged to obtain supplies from the Argentine. For the War Office to entpr into such a contract is, to say the Jpast of it, unjust. | and it is poor recompense for the splnndid aid which Australasia has given in the South African War. A great deal has breu written of late concerning the advisability of the Empire retaining its owntrade, instead of banding it over to foreign nations" but on the very first occasion that such a policy could be brought into f ©rce il is entirely, disregarded. It is quite evident the War Office has shown little or no discretion in the matter, andit would appear as if Mr Cecil Rhodes has brought sufficient influence to bear to onoblo his company to secure the contract. This j idea is borne out by the conduct of the War Office. Accordiug to the Premier they sent a cable message to him asking him to advertise in the colony for supplies of meat, and they also informed him in the same communication that no tender would be accepted unless it were on the form prescribed ; that copies of this form had been posted, and that teuders vrould be accepted on the 6th January. Seeing that the forms only arrived on ' the Ist or 2nd January, the whole thing was npthiug.more nor less than a farce. However, a protest has be*n geut Home against the treatment the oolqpies have received, respecting these tenders, aud if the contracts are not annulled, so as to exclude foreign people from competition with the colonies, then n great injustice will be inflicted upou the latN-r.