COLD STORAGE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18552, 30 November 1925, Page 3

COLD STORAGE.

AN EMPIRE FACTOR. MORE RESEARCH WORK. i ——— (nOU OTTK OWS CORMSPOKDEXT.) LONDON, October 20. Sir Halforcl J. Mackinder (chairman of,the Imperial Economic Committee) was the chief guest at the annual dinner of the British Cold Storage and Ice | Association. Sir James Allen (vicepresident of the Association) was also present, and Sir Gordon H. Campbell (president) occupied the chair. "Refrigeration: an Empire Factor," was the principal toast proposed by the chairman. A generation ago. he said,' few people would hare realised that i there was any relation between the two terms in the toast. To-day the importance of refrigeration as a mainstay of the British Empire was universally acknowledged. There seemed to l>e no limit to the importance of refrigeration in everyday life. Without lOl'rigeration what would be the use of sending; out to the overseas Dominions thousands of emigrants to raise cattle and sheep and produce butter, cheese, and fruit? In all these directions refrigeration was, so to speak, the power behind the throne. Its power indeed had been greatly emphasised lately by the Ministry of Health, in connexion with their regulations against the use of chemical preservatives. What a testimonial it was to the utility of refrigeration that the Government could contemplate the prohibition of all other agents of preservation, relying solely on refrigeration, and at the same time being confident that there wottld be no .curtailment of the snpply of food to the public. The effect of those regulations was to increase the importance of refrigeration as being practically the only really harmless food preservative. ' A case in point of the power of refrigeration was the shipping strike in Dominion ports. Although most of the steamers loaded with meat, butter, cheese, and fruit in Australian, New Zealand, and South African ports had been hold up for a month or six weeks no apprehension had been felt as legards tho condition of the goods so delayed, so long as the refrigerating plants had been allowed to run. It was really a ; tribute to the efficiency of refrigeration that an extra delay of sis weeks or two months could "be looked upon as of no importance 60 far as the condition of the goods was concerned. Even-thing pointed # to refrigeration helping mankind at 'every moment of the day, and thus .would be seen the heavy responsibility that lay upon an Association like theirs to develop and foster all manner of improvements relating to the application of cold storage in the public interest. The Government scheme of cold storage research at Cambridge, which was instituted at the Association's requestj was being carried on in co-op-eration with similar efforts in other parts of the world throughout the various branches of this great industry, and promised to do a vast amount to help the trade of the Empire and benefit its citizens in both hemispheres. Economic Committee's Report. Sir Halford Mackinder said that in the report which the Economic Committee had presented' to Parliament, they had apportioned funds for research work. There were many problems yet to solve. Fruit came to us as a living organism and they had yet to find out how fruit should arrive here in perfect condition. They had yet to discover how to bring bananas to this country so that they would not be either half rotten or like a piece of wood. They had yet to find an. economical way to bring chille'd beef from Australia and New Zealand. If they would have the population of this country an Al population they required to consider the style in'which the produce was grown, they required to investigate the methods, of transport and the conditions under which the produce' was distributed in this country. They had to consider the whole range and change of the produce from the moment the seed was put into the ground to the moment it was placed before the consumer. Refrigeration was a scientific process on which the Empire depended for its existence. They required experts who could take the whole range and change of produce into view. Scientists said that if they gathered ten young students together 'with a view to carrying out research, only one of. these would prove to possess the gift of discovery. Were they justified ' in asking these rare students to throw up ordinary careers to devote themselves to research ? It was the business of such an Association as this to provide careers for research workers and to use their experience to bring Australia and New Zealand closer to this countrv—a country capable of supporting only twenty millions of people, and yet called upon to support forty millions.

An International Trade. I>r. Juan E. Richelet, representative in the United, Kingdom of the Argentine Ministry of Agriculture, proposed the toast of the British Cold Storage and Ice Association. He said he represented a country which had much in common with this country. The British Cold Storage and Ice Association,he had long known as an institution pursuing objects with which Argentina and its Government were in the fullest accord, namely, the perfecting of the methods of refrigeration for tho benefit of mankind. . "My own presence in Great Britain is an expression on the part of the Argentine Ministry of Agriculture, whose representative I am, of its earnest desire to regulate" the conditions and arrangements of its great and growing food exports to this country according v to the highest hygienic ideals. The Argentine Government has always been a strong supporter of the International Refrigeration movement, and I have, great pleasure in proposing the health of the British Cold Storage and Ice Association, coupled with the name of Colonel the Honourable Sir. James Allen, the distinguished . representative of a great refrigerated food producing country." Sir James Allen, in replying,' said that cold storage was an international concern, and though New Zealand looked with a competitor's interest upon the trade of the Argentine, tLey had no feelings of animosity towards her. The fact that Australia and New Zealand were so far from Great Britain meant that their meat had to he brought in a frozen state. Dr. Richelet, as one connected with science, would rejoice if in the years to come the Dominion were able to send its beef to the Home Country in a chilled condition. The High Commissioner also supported Sir Halford Mackinder in his appeal to the Association to do" all they could for the advancement of scientific! training and research.