GIFTS OF FOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 123, 27 May 1941, Page 9

GIFTS OF FOOD

PARCELS FOR BRITAIN

REGULATIONS REVISED

The regulations covering the admission of gifts of food into the United Kingdom have been revised by the British Ministry of Food with the object of conserving shipping space for the more urgent supplies. The regulations affect all parcels of food sent after June 28. The Acting Prime Minister (Mr. Nash) has received the following statement on the subject by the Ministry of Food through the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand, Sir Harry Batterbee.

"Bona-fide unsolicited gifts, whether they include rationed foods or not, may be received from abroad by parcel post addressed to individuals. No parcel may exceed 51b gross weight or contain more than 21b of any one foodstuff. The maximum of 51b will also be applied by the Board of Trade in the case of non-foodstuffs. No permit or licence is required in such cases and all parcels must be clearly marked as gifts. "A gift cannot be regarded as unsolicited where it has been received as a result of some prior communica-j tion sent by the recipient to the donor. Moreover, the receipt of .gifts at frequent intervals cannot be permitted. NO LICENCES TO IMPORTERS. "Licences which have been granted to importers to receive individual gifts in bulk for distribution . through the parcel post on arrival in the United Kingdom will not be renewed or any further licences of tjtiis v type approved. Existing licences and tHbse recently expired and under consideration for renewal will be held to cover consignments dispatched from abroad by June 28. "Where well-wishers abroad desire to send larger quantities of foodstuffs (which must not include rationed foods) they must first arrange for some responsible oragnisation in this country, formed for charitable or similar purposes, to be the recipient of such goods. Application for a licence must then be made to the Ministry by the organisation, which will be required to give an undertaking that the goods will be consumed within that organisation. For example, if the recipient is a hospital, the food would be supplied to patients or members of the staff. "In the case of neither parcels nor larger consignments will it be permitted to send any money out of the United Kingdom in respect of gifts of food. "Attention is drawn to the provision of the Rationing Orders, 1939 (S.R. and O, 1856), under which it is an offence to obtain or attempt to obtain or to supply or attempt to supply any rationed food in excess of the ration. It is an offence, therefore, to send abroad for supplies of rationed food. "These regulations will be applied in respect of all gifts dispatched from abroad after June 28."