IN BRITAIN TODAY New Threat To N.Z. Cheese

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31783, 13 September 1968, Page 21

IN BRITAIN TODAY New Threat To N.Z. Cheese

(N.Z.P A.-Reuter-Copyright Cable News Digest) Housewives are being given the pres-sure-selling treatment from the British Country Cheese Council in an attempt to persuade them to reject imported cheeses and pay a little extra for the home-produced article. English cheese is not trying to follow the “rat race” of price-cutting caused by an over-abundance of foreign cheese on the British market. Instead, the council is to increase its advertising budget by £150,000 to a total of £330,000 to pay for television commercials which come as close as regulations permit to "knocking” imported cheeses. The campaign, which has already begun, will concentrate on helping British

cheese to retain its price premium over the imported product Current comparative firsthand quotations are 226 s per cwt for New Zealand finest waxed, compared with about 300 s for home - produced Cheddar. The television advertisements show cheese dishes bearing Union Jacks. Background chants of “England! England!” taken from a World Cup Soccer recording are heard. Sir Richard Trehane, chairman of the council and of the British Milk Marketing Board, said at a press conference that so far home-produced cheese had managed not only to maintain its price, but also to retain its share of the total market, at just under 50 per cent STOCK POSITION Present stocks of British cheese were much the same as a year ago, although an increase in foreign cheese supplies of about 30,000 tons had brought total stocks to the dangerously-higb level of nearly 90,000 tons. The only segment of the home-produced cheese trade in some difficulty was farmhouse industry, which had been producing above-average quantities, Sir Richard Trehane said. But, despite the good performance on the home front, the present flow of imports could, if it was maintained, cause the whole market structure to collapse. In this event, based on the previous market collapse in 1957, British losses would amount to between £lom and

£lsm, and New Zealand, by far the leading foreign supplier, could lose about £Bm to £lom.

Sir Richard Trehane thought the Government’s plea to foreign exporters for a voluntary curb on supplies had a good chance of success, if only because the countries concerned had a direct economic Incentive not to cause a price collapse.

Every foreign supplier except New Zealand was technically dumping Cheddar cheese in Britain.

There had been a good response from overseas governments to the British plan for voluntary restraint, although there had also been a good deal of argument about detail. Sir Richard Trehane also said that a High Court action to protect Cheddar from foreign imitations—as Stilton was two years ago—was out of the question. Many countries, like New Zealand and Australia, had been making it for too long. Strike Plan A conference in London of delegates from 30 trade unions has approved the proposed national engineering strike, which would be for an indefinite period and might well paralyse British industry. The strike, which would certainly be the worst industrial stoppage Britain has suffered for years, would involve three million workers in factories and shipyards. Virtually all the nation’s home and export manufacturing plants would be affected, and a grave blow struck at the Government’s top-priority drive to restore the national economy.

The union leaders have, however, left room for “peace moves” by deciding to postpone the starting date of the strike four weeks from the original date, September 23, to October 21.

Approval for the stoppage, to support demands for higher pay, came from the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, which endorsed last week’s strike call by the Amalgamated Engineering Union, Britain’s second-largest union. Birth Control The liberal and conservative elements in the Roman Catholic Church in Britain are moving towards a showdown on birth control. Many Roman Catholic theologians are now confident that a more liberal view will prevail after discussions on an unprecedented scale now going on between bishops, priests, laity and the theologians themselves.

The theologians are strongly urging that birth control should be seen “as part of the whole context of the family and individual circumstances.”

“Christian marriages,” they say, “must be looked at in the round, and not just ‘contraception first and everything else afterward’.”

Most bishops in England and Wales are. now planning meetings with their priests to discuss the encyclical—and this, in spite of the fact that as recently as a fortnight ago some were saying that this was not necessary. A few bishops are said to be very nervous and to have invited one or two leading theologians to help them to answer the arguments of welleducated young curates who believe the Pope’s encyclical to be “poor theology in relation to the Church’s present knowledge.” Prelates and the laity in Germany, Holland and Belgium, and in the theological colleges in Britain and the United States, are pressing this view.

The idea should not provide any embarrassment for the Pope because he has yet to issue his promised instructions on how his encyclical should be applied in day-to-day circumstances. WRONG IMPRESSION

The fact that the bishops have already issued instructions—most of them confusing—has wrongly created the impression among Britain’s Roman Catholics that the last word had been spoken.

Cardinal Heenan is said to be dividing his priests into groups of 30 to study the encyclical and report back to him: and Archbishop Beck, of Liverpool, has asked his pastoral council to study the Pope's pronouncement and give him its views. Time Change An English vicar has changed the time of the Sunday evening services at bis church so that the congregation can be home in time to see “The Forsyte Saga” on television. Now services at the parish church in Cirencester, Gloucester, will begin at 6 p.m., 30 minutes earlier than in the past and one hour and 25 minutes before the popular serial is screened. The vicar (the Rev Rowland Hill), who proposed the change after writing to the 8.8. C., suggesting that the programme should be screened after 8 p.m., said the parochial church council had debated the change for an hour.

“One or two members felt the church should not be dictated to by television,” he said.