CHILLED BEEF ALLOCATION

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 8

CHILLED BEEF ALLOCATION

Coupling Mr. Coates's statement yesterday with the earlier Press cablegram concerning Australia's allocation, it seems that Commonwealth and Dominion have received exactly the same figures (56,000cwt) for export of chilled beef in the April-June quarter. Mr. Coales states that previously the Dominion had been allocated 30,000cwt; the cablegram states that Mr. Lyons in London asked for 60,000cwt, and the result is 56,000cwt each. As the quarter is already twelve days gone, it cannot be said that the Empire machinery has worked very expeditiously; nor can such thirteenth-hour decisions be helpful to shipping companies and shippers. On April 3 it was published in Australia that a specially-equipped steamer was loading chilled beef in Australia with a view to delivery in London before the end of the quarter, on the understanding that if the British'allocation*' to Australia was not extended, the chilled beef was to be frozen down some days before reaching a British port, where it could be landed as frozen. The London decision puts at rest the quarter's allocation, but what is to happen between June 30 and the expiry of the Anglo-Argen-tine agreement in 1936, and what is to happen thereafter, are still matters in negotiation.