FOOD FOR BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 25745, 19 March 1946, Page 8

FOOD FOR BRITAIN

USE OF AMERICAN SHIPS FOUR TO LOAD AT AUCKLAND (P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 18. Allocated by the British Ministry of War Transport to load urgently-needed cargoes of food for Britain, four United States merchant ships are now en route from Okinawa for Auckland. All the ships are reported Co have part cargoes of produce originally intended for the United States forces in the Pacific but not delivered, and Auckland will fill the ships to capacity before they sail for Britain. The first two vessels, the Fleetwood and the Flying Dragon, left Okinawa for Auckland at the end of February. The Fleetwood will arrive here on Saturday and the Flying Dragon on Monday. Both will load for Liverpool and will sail via Panama. Two more ships left Okinawa for Auckland on March 1 and are due about the end of the month to load for London. The use of American ships to take produce cargoes from the Dominion to the United Kingdom has few precedents, the only similar instances occurring during the war when the United Fruit Company’s Golden Eagle loaded refrigerated cargo at Auckland in December, 1944, and two other ships took produce from the south. While it is not expected that other American vessels will be used, the move indicates that the Ministry of War Transport is carrying out its policy of sending any ships to any place food can be obtained for Britain., “ There are plenty of British ships now available,” said Mr E. V. Bevan, chairman of the Loading Allotment Committee, when interviewed by telephone in Wellington, “ and the main reason why American ships are being used is to assist in getting as much food away as quickly as possible.” Mr Bevan illustrated the urgency of the situation by stating that numbers of ships had been diverted from the Argentine trade to New Zealand to carry food cargoes. One was now loading ixj Napier and a second would follow her there. One was scheduled for New Plymouth, and a further two, bringing the total of five were expected on the coast.