MEAT IN WAR TIME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 131, 6 June 1939, Page 12

MEAT IN WAR TIME

BRITISH CONTROL SCHEME

LONDON, May 18

In connection with the Food (Defence Plans) Department's scheme for maintaining food supplies in the event of war, the Meat Importers' National (Defence) Committee has been set up under the chairmanship of Mr. R. S. Forsyth, C.M.G., of the New Zealand Meat Producers' Control Board. In collaboration with the Food (Defence Plans) Department, the committee has been engaged in, drawing up plans for the control of meat imports, including canned meat, should the necessity arise. In drafting these plans,' the committee has maintained the underlying principle of leaving to the trade the great part of the responsibility for conducting the business of distribution. The plans provide that in time of war the Food Controller would be the sole importer of meat. Private imports would cease; importers would continue their peace-time functions as far as possible, but as agents of the Food Controller. They would - be grouped in an organisation to be called the Meat Importers' National Association, with branches in suitable centres. A form has been sent to each importer of meat on which he is asked to state the tonnage of his imports in the calendar year 1938 from each supplying country. This figure will be known as his "datum line quantity" and is the basis on which allotments of meat would be made in time of war. Each importer, on joining the association, will be asked to put up a purely nominal amount of share capital based on his datum line quantity. This would determine the'dividend payable to him by the association and. even if allotments of meat could not always be made strictly in accordance with the datum line ' quantity, the importer would suffer no injustice as his dividend would already be secured. In certain circumstances importers might have to trade in ports other than those which they normally use, and the constitution of the association would pro vide that one importer could by arrangement undertake the duties of another. The appointment of a Director of Cold Storage—Mr. W. J. Howard, 08.E.. manager of the Union Cold Storage Co.. Ltd.. is the selectionindicates that the Defence Department is maturing its plans for the co-ordina-tion of the country's public cold store resources in the war-time food distribution scheme.