DWINDLING PRODUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 25494, 26 May 1945, Page 8

DWINDLING PRODUCTION

AUSTRALIA'S FOOD PROBLEM GLOOMY PROSPECTS FOR COMING SEASON (N.Z.P.A. Special' Aust. Correspondent.) (Rec.; 8 a.m.) SYDNEY, May 25. The world food shortage has become one of Australia's most urgent problems. New warnings are being sounded that Australians this winter must face a greater degree of austerity than anything they have so far experienced. The Commonwealth's own immediate food production prospects are undeniably'..worse than at any previous time since the outbreak of war. Drought continues to grip large areas of Eastern Australia. Next season's cereal crop's must suffer severely, while the shifting'of'thousands of head of stock to agistment areas in Northern New South'-Wales, the severe rationing of cattle, pig, and poultry feed and the" ■ restriction of flour milling to one shift a day are all additional indications of Australia's waxing food problem. ( " These signs' give warning of less food, not in the distant future, but long before the.winter, is over," says the 'Sydney Morning Herald' in a leading article to-day. "Add a steady shrinkage'in milk and butter production, and the disturbing nature of the whole food outlook becomes apparent." The paper adds that Australia's first, need is for fodder and cereals, and that all departmental efforts to redistribute supplies within the "Commonwealth or to bring consignments from abroad can do little to relieve the position. Despite the dwindling production, the Federal Minister of Commerce, Mr Scully, had declared that Australia will do " all that is humanly possible to fulfil .her commitments to the United Kingdom." Commonwealth food experts, however, suggest that Australian exports to Britain to December 30 this year may onlv be 170.000 tons .instead of the 200.000 tons normally, exported in ■■pre-war years. They add that while the shortages will certainly be more marked there is little likelihood of further cuts in the actual Australian civilian food ration scale, since no ration cut "could benefit tlje export quantities sufficiently to be worthwhile. The 'Sydney Morning Herald,' nevertheless, to-day asks that Australia make a practical demonstration of her determination to assist Great Britain to the limit by substituting foods still plentiful here for those urgently needed abroad. The paper suggests* that more vegetables and less meat and fats should be eaten within the Commonwealth, and concludes: " If Australia does not cheerfully and promptly accept the obligation to share current shortages with Britain our people will hereafter hang their heads in shame."