BRITAIN’S FOOD SUPPLIES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 85, 4 January 1930, Page 9

BRITAIN’S FOOD SUPPLIES

VALUE OF TRADE WITH SOUTH AMERICA

The considerations which prompted the British Government to enter into the accent trade treaty with Argentina are suggested by an article in “The Statist” which undertakes to answer the question as to why development of South America should be recommended to the British investor instead of that of the British Empire. The article says: “The answer is that, as far as we know, no part of the British Empire is fertile in the sense that the greater part of the South American continent is; and, consequently, to obtain supplies unit for unit, whether of food or of raw materials, would be infinitely more costly if obtained from Empire sources than from the principal countries of South America. How would it be possible to obtain supplies of beef from India, which probably has a greater number of cattle than any other country in the world, in defiance of the religions feelings of a large proportion of our Indian fellow subjects? And, again, at what price would it be possible to obtain beef from Australia at the price we obtain it, say, from the Argentine Republic? While the vast continent of South America is virtually unpeopled, and is available as a source of supply, it would not be sound economics to obtain food where various obstacles are placed in the way of those who would obtain it both by man’s action and by the natural aridity of the soil. . . . Assuming, and we do not think the point will be disputed, that it will be desirable to obtain food and raw materials in greater abundance and upon a lower basis of values than at present, where would it be possible to obtain them with equal facility from any other source than that of South America? From the Guianas to the plains of Patagonia, there is, as far as we are aware, no part of the earth so uniformly fertile and which would yield in such abundance adequate returns both to the investor who found the means of opening up any given area and to the farmer or labourer who actually worked the land.”