IN BRITAIN TODAY International Woolgrowers Oppose Australian Plan

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 4

IN BRITAIN TODAY International Woolgrowers Oppose Australian Plan

(P.A.-Reuter Copyright Gable News Digest)

International woo 1buyers in Britain have told the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Gorton) they are so concerned that Australia’s wool - marketing proposals will have the opposite effect to the one hoped for that they are willing to send a delegation to Australia to explain their views.

A letter to Mr Gorton to this effect has been released by the president of the International Wool Textile Organisation (Mr Georges Peltzer, of Belgium) at the Woolbuyers’ Bradford headquarters. The letter was written after a meeting in London last month between the chairman of the Australian Wool Board (Sir William Gunn) and delegates from the woolbuyers’ group, at which the delegates were given more details about the plans for an Australian statutory marketing scheme. Members of the 1.W.T.0. have declared repeatedly their opposition to any interference in the open market auction system of wool sales. The letter said: “You will be aware, no doubt, that recommendations have been made by a committee advising the Australian Wool Board on the remedies to be undertaken to deal with the serious problems brought about by the low wool prices in your country. “Sir William Gunn, the chairman of the board, has kindly sent us copies of these recommendations, and discussed them with delegates of our organisation from the major wool-consuming countries, viz, the ' European Economic Community, the United Kingdom and Japan. “We are, however, so concerned that the proposals for a single marketing authority and the powers entrusted to it will have the opposite effect of what is intended that, just as we are discussing similiar problems with other woolgrowing countries, I would be willing, as a matter of urgency, to bring a small mission to Australia to explain to your Government, in person and in detail, the basis for our alarm and our readiness to co-operate with Australian authorities in finding measures which will not be detrimental to the interest of the woolgrowing community in your country.”

Mr Peltzer added that the visit could take place at any time convenient to Mr Gorton and, if possible, during the first days of September.

Trade War Envisaged Another American has spoken out in Britain on the possibility of a major trade war between the United States and the European Economic Community. This time, the visitor to London, Mr Hale Boggs, a Louisiana member of the House of Representatives, went further, envisaging a three-way war between Europe, America and Japan. Mr Boggs is a senior member of the House committee that recently brought down a protectionist bill. The measure, he said in London, could have been much tougher, and would have been if the many industries—over 70 of them—who had asked for protection had had their way. Mr Boggs hoped Europe would demonstrate liberal trade policies to help dampen down American protectionist feeling, which, in his opinion, was caused largely by Japanese discrimination against American imports. The present draft bill gave authority only to impose quotas on textiles and shoes, but many more products might be added later, Mr Boggs said. Additions might come as soon as the bill reached the Senate.

“Already there is sentiment in the United States for retaliation against the E.E.C.’s agricultural policies, by restricting manufactured imports, such as cars,” he told London journalists. “The inevitable result of a hardening of such an attitude would be a three-way trade war between the Western world’s three largest trading groups.”

Animal Ban

May Be Lifted

The lifting of the ban on the importation of dogs and cats into Britain that was imposed after a rabies death earlier this year is recommended in an interim report brought down by the Committee of Inquiry into Rabies. It will now go to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr James Prior) for his consideration and he is expected to announce approval of the recommendations next week. The committee also recommends that the quarantine period of dogs and cats should revert to six months: the period had been extended to a year. Along with the relaxation of the ban, however, the committee makes a number of recommendations for tightening precautions against rabies outbreaks, including: The immediate vaccination of animals going into

antine with a proved and potency - tested vaccine, and a further vaccination a month later, in case the first has not been effective.

The isolation of new arrivals in quarantine kennels for 14 days, to be moved only with the authorisation of a veterinary surgeon.

The barring of animals not in quarantine from the quarantine block at all times.

The committee also says that if there should be any ' new outbreak of rabies, quar- ' antine periods should be 1 increased again, and during 1 that time no more animals 1 should be admitted. A continuation of the complete ban was considered, the committee says, but the danger of illegal imports would outweigh any benefits this might have. “An animal which has entered illegally, and which would be neither under surveillance nor control, might ; remain at large even in the final, most dangerous, stages , of the disease, and would present a potentially greater risk than the’ occasional legallyimported animal with an exceptionally long incubation period,” says the report. The British Veterinary Association has said that it is in basic agreement with the report. Port Charges Increased A few weeks after the end of Britain’s costly national docks strike, the Port of London Authority has announced increases up to 27} per cent in port charges. Expected to bring in an extra £3fm the increases will become effective on September 7, to offset the cost of implementing recommendations made by the court of inquiry into the pay for dock labour.

“Every port in the country has got to face some sort of increase.” a P.L.A. spokesman said. “We do not believe we will lose business as a result of the higher charges. Shipowners will get a much more efficient service, with greater productivity.” Doubts Among Exporters British expoilers, in general, are no longer very confident about their future trade prospects, according to a survey issued by the Association of British Chambers of Commerce. Its questionnaire covered a cross-section of exporters who, between them, account for overseas sales worth £l9om a year, or 21 per cent of Britain’s total foreign trade earnings. “There has been a sharp fail in confidence about exports, 49 per cent of the merchants being less optimistic now than they were four months ago, and only 11 per cent more optimistic,” says the association in its summary of the findings. Over the past four months, it adds, export merchants have reported that the rate of new orders, export deliveries, and the level of outstanding exporting orders have all declined. Musical Proposal Debrett, dubbed “the Bible of British bluebloods,” has proposed that "God Bless the Prince of Wales” should be adopted as the official anthem of the heir to the Throne, Prince Charles, who will be 22 on November 14.

The gilt-edged guide to British aristocracy suggests that the song should be played and sung on all official occasions attended by the Prince. Heard often at the recent investiture of Prince Charles in Caernarvon Castle, the song was composed to commemorate the marriage, in 1863, of Albert, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), to Princess Alexandra of Denmark.

The 1970 Debrett, containing 3100 pages of information, came out two months late this year. Its editor, Patrick Montague-Smith, is at work on a new companion volume devoted to correct form, including the proper way of addressing titled people. “The British System of address is the most complicated in the world,” he said, “but recently there has been a trend to greater informality.” Meanwhile, the 1970 edition of Debrett names the oldest living holder of a peerage as the Countess of Kintore, who is 95. The oldest living peer is said to be Viscount Goddard, aged 93.

Slight Swing To Margarine

Just how much efforts to increase butter consumption in Britain are being thwarted by the swing to margarine is shown by the latest figures on margarine sales. One of the leading margarine - producing companies says domestic sales of margarine rose by 5 per cent in the first half of this year. The Butter Council, quoting authoritative consumer panel reports, puts the figure

at only 2.9 per cent; but it is understood that the council has not included the same types of margarine, such as cooking fats, included by the margarine company. The latter says that sales of margarine to housewives rose by 105,000 tons in the first half of the year, compared with a rise of 100,000 tons in the same period last year.

The gains, it adds, were made in spite of price rises in January, and were at the expense of butter. The major increased sales were of “soft” margarines, which include more vegetable oils and which sell at premium prices equivalent to the price of New Zealand butter. Warning To Teachers The fohner Minister of Health and Security and Labour Party intellectual, Mr Richard Crossman, has warned British teachers about applying for teaching positions in New South Wales. Writing under a no-longer-anonymous pseudonym in the Left-wing magazine, “New

Statesman,” Mr Crossman lists the complaints and grievances that immigrant British teachers claim they have suffered under the New South Wales Education Authority. , “Although immigrant teachers will receive £lO more a week, this is soon mopped up by higher housing costs,” Mr Crossman writes,

He says that unhappy exiles have written home, complaining of the old-fashioned, authoritarian system in New South Wales. Left-wing views are very much frowned upon, one tea-’-.er having been suspended for wearing an antiwar badge. And, Mr Crossman says, even left-handedness was singled out for disapproval because, before acceptance into the department, a lefthander must demonstrate his ability to be ambidextrous on the blackboard. The article goes on to say that although the National Union of Teachers in Britain has not declared New South Wales “black”—as it has done various provinces in Canada and some states of America, he feels that it may only be a question of time.