FOOD FOR BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 122, 26 May 1941, Page 6

FOOD FOR BRITAIN

AUSTRALIA'S SUPPLIES

(Rcc. 10 a.m.)

LONDON, May 25

Although it is rumoured that Mr. Menzies. the Prime Minister of Australia, is taking home something of special interest to Australian primary producers the United Kingdom intends buying Australia's surplus food. This is regarded here as a reaffirmation of a policy rather than a new development.

The Ministry of Food is unaware of any new concrete development being finalised. There is no confirmation, for instance, of any specific arrangements made for increased shipping facilities to lift Australian products, apart from the fact of the Middle East and Far East theatres of war requiring increasingly substantial supplies of foods; while the United Kingdom is still chiefly interested in meat, buttter, cheese, and dried fruits. —U.P.A.

New secondary industries are being planned in Australia, it was recently reported, to supply Great Britain with canned meat, sausages, bacon, meat concentrates, and dried eggs.

The Minister of Commerce <Sir Earle Page) said that these industries would help to dispose of primary products which were banking up in Australia because of the shipping shortage.

Australia's wartime agricultural policy had been formulated in consultation with other Empire countries, particularly New Zealand. Its objectives were to provide the maximum aid for Britain on the vital food front and to guarantee the security and stability of Australian primary industries, so that their productive capacity could be maintained.