SUPPLY COUNCIL

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 208, 30 May 1941, Page 8

SUPPLY COUNCIL

To Meet Needs Of Armed Forces APPOINTMENT BY MINISTER Big Problems To Be Solved The establishment of a Supply Council was announced yesterday by the Minister of Supply and Munitions,. Mr. Sullivan. He said that the functions of the council had been drafted to include the centralizing of all orders for the requirements of the armed forces, the control of commodities needed for defence purposes, the responsibility'of deciding priorities in regard to defence supplies, and in regard to shipping. The council was also authorized to deal with possible economies and substitution in present consumption and with the reclamation and utilization of waste. The matter of requisitioning or commandeering supplies required for defence purposes would also be a function of the council.

Mr. Sullivan said the War Cabinet had authorized him to establish immediately a Supply Council. “As most people are aware,” he added, “the supply position is steadily depreciating through shiping difficulties and due to the increasing control of exports in the country of their origin; particularly does the latter apply to America. "Major problems of supply and production are now coming to a head and the increasing requests being received from the Empire overesas for New Zealand to produce and export foodstuffs. clothing, and munitions will mean a thorough stocktaking of oar maximum capacity to produce, and of our minimum domestic requirement. Essential Supplies.

“In certain directions it already appears that some reduction or substitution in our own consumption will be necessary if we are to give of our best to the greatest possible extent to assist the Empire’s tvar effort The armed forces are today calling .on local manufacturers more and more in an endeavour to satisfy the demand for essential supplies which either cannot be obtained overseas or for which only delayed deliveries can be promised.” It is the intention of the Minister to utilize the Supply Council in the solution of these problems and in the coordination of all activities affecting the requirements of the three armed services. One of the main functions of the council will be to plan ahead so that production can be initiated or orders placed overseas at an early date for supplies which will be needed next year. The Minister said that these important and responsible functions had been placed upon a very small body, of which he himself was to be chairman.

Members of the council are;— Mr. B. C. Ashwin, Secretary to the Treasury. Mr. D. A. Ewen, managing director of Sargood Son and Ewen, Wellington. Mr. G. Jackson, managing director of the Ford Motor Company, Lower Hutt. Mr. F. G. Young, president of the Auckland Trades Council, and a member of the executive of the New Zealand Federation of Labour. When the council is considering matters of shipping priority, Mr. J. N. Greenland, general manager of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, Limited, will be a full member of the council. Mr. Sullivan stated that the inaugural meeting of the council had already been held and that he was satisfied from his contacts with the members that they had already grasped the significance and scope of their responsibility and had expressed themselves as prepared to give of their utmost to effect an efficient discharge of their functions. He was very hopeful that the operation of this council would prove of the utmost value to the Dominion’s war effort in the co-ordinating and planning ahead of the arrangements for the supply of commodities essential for the war effort.