END OF MEAT RATIONING

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27191, 7 November 1953, Page 7

END OF MEAT RATIONING

Private Buying By Britain ' (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, November 6. The British Food Minister (Mr G. Lloyd George) said yesterday that Britain would honour the meat agreements with Australia and New Zealand when rationing ended in 1954. The Government would do this, although the Ministry would not be responsible for bulk meat buying. Mr Lloyd George was speaking at a press conference, called to explain the Government’s policy after the publication of a White Paper concerning the removal of control of food and the marketing of agricultural produce. He said he hoped importers, when they secured their, freedom, would enter into contracts with Australia and New Zealand; The White Paper announced yesterday that meat rationing and Government bulk purchase of meat would end in 1954. All Britain’s meat (home-grown and imported) has been bought in bulk by the Government since rationing began in 1939.

The White Paper said private traders would be given the signal to go ahead, once rationing is ended, to provide Britain’s £300,000,000 worth of home-grown meat and £200,000,000 imports.

Bulk buying of bacon will be continued for a time, but the Government will end the allocation of supplies and price control on meat and bacon. The Government plans a two-way system of price guarantees combining a guaranteed individual price on each sale of meat with a collective guarantee of the standard price to the industry, as a whole.