NOT ENOUGH FOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 91, 14 October 1943, Page 6

NOT ENOUGH FOOD

AUSTRALLVS OUTPUT ". . A HEATED DEBATE Rec. 1 p.m. CANBERRA, This Day. Ships were leaving for Britain with empty refrigeration chambers, because Australia was not producing enough food, declared Mr. Anthony, New South Wales Country Party member, in a debate in the Federal House of Representatives on Australia's food position. Opposition members alleged that the Government had failed to grapple with the. Man-power problems. The debate was sometimes heated, and Major Cameron (United Australia Party) was suspended for refusing to withdraw a remark which the Speaker held to be a reflection on the chair. This was the first suspension in the House since the war- ; began. The suspension followed Mr. Cameron's refusal to apologise for having called the Speaker "Rafferty 'in the Chair." Replying to Mr. Anthony's allegation that the release of 20,000 soldiers at the rate of 2000 a month for primary production was too slow, the Minister for the Army/Mr. Forde, said: "I would be a fool if willynilly I released thousands of men, regardless of the advice of General Mac Arthur and General Blarney." The Minister said that last year the Australian Army temporarily released 30,000 men for farm work. At present nearly 3000 soldiers were on leave without pay, most of them being engaged in primary production. The Minister of Commerce, Mr. Scully, said the Government hoped to place more than 10,000 nominated men back on dairy farms; 15,000 men would go to food processing industries, and the Army seasonal workers' rural pool would be increased to 10,000 men. To assist production the Government had placed orders for more than 16,000 ploughs, 15,000 cultivators, 23,000 harrows, 12,000 milking machines, and 50,000 sprays. The Government also planned substantial increases in present annualproduction of 1,000,000 tons of'carcass meat. However, the Government freely admitted tliat during the year there would be a shortage of dairy products and perhaps a temporary shortage of meat.