WOOL ALLOCATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 57, 8 March 1945, Page 8

WOOL ALLOCATIONS

RATIONING NOT RELAXED

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 9 a.m. , LONDON, March 7. British manufacturers' hopes of some relaxation of wool rationing in the four-monthly allocation period just commenced are disappointed. The control of raw material remains as strict as ever, but this does not mean either a shortage of supply or that less wool is being consumed. It is due to the desire of the authorities to control production and the destination of wool products through the medium of the raw material ration.

It is believed that the authorities today are less concerned about supplies of raw material than about the need to make the fullest use of the available productive capacity and labour and to direct the resultant products into channels of most urgent need. These aims are being secured through the closest direction of permitted wool consumption'the trade has ever known. Even so, expansion of production is encouraged where possible, for the problem of the authorities today is not to curtail production of wartime needs but to satisfy wartime needs from the restricted productive capacity available after many thousands of workers haye been withdrawn from the industry in the past year or two for the forces and for munition production.

Today cloth manufacturers are instructed not to take up all their permitted wool ration if they have insufficient labour, etc., to process it, but they are also invited to apply for extra rations if they can handle them, and provided the extra wool is used' only in directions where officially approved. By this elasticity of method the authorities make full use of the available labour and capacity of industry, but every pound of wool and every yard of cloth is earmarked for some essential purpose. ALMOST AN EXACT SCIENCE. Control of production is becoming almost an exact science under the methods adopted in Britain to meet the needs of the war and to ensure that civilian production goes in channels that are most needed. For example, the control of wool cloth exports not only divides the available total between Britain's customer1 countries but ensures that each country receives the types of wool it most needs. Thus the New Zealand Government desires certain quantities of hair'inter-linings to be included in its quota of cloth-from Britain for the current allocation period, and firms (> here are not only advised accordingly but are also given special facilities for .providing these fabrics, which will/have a first claini upon the New Zealand allocation. ■■■■'