'Third-Hand Mutton Fed To N.Z. Troops’

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31672, 7 May 1968, Page 18

'Third-Hand Mutton Fed To N.Z. Troops’

New Zealand troops in Vietnam were being fed second-grade, New Zealand ewe mutton third-hand through the Japanese and the Americans, said the secretary of the Canterbury Rubber Workers’ Union (Mr T. Fletcher) in Christchurch yesterday.

Mr Fletcher said that he had learned this from a New Zealand soldier he visited last month at Terendak Camp in Malaysia. The soldier was on five days leave from Vietnam to see his family.

The ewe mutton was sold by New Zealand to Japan, which processed most of it. Being enterprising the Japanese recouped some of their money by selling the New Zealand mutton to the American military authorities in Vietnam. The New Zealand Govern-

ment then bought the secondgrade New Zealand ewe mutton back from the Americans for the New Zealand soldiers serving in Vietnam, said Mr Fletcher.

Mr Fletcher said that when he asked the New Zealand soldier if he ever received New Zealand lamb in his rations, the soldier laughed. The Minister of Overseas Trade (Mr Marshall) said last night that It was highly unlikely that New Zealand troops in Vietnam were being fed second-grade New Zealand ewe mutton, third hand, through the Japanese and Americans, according to a Press Association message. “I think it is highly unlikely. But 1 would not describe the muttton we are sending to Japan as poor quality meat in any case. I would not accept this as an accurate report,” said Mr Marshall.