ARGENTINE WHEAT SALES

Evening Star, Issue 26067, 3 April 1947, Page 6

ARGENTINE WHEAT SALES

EXCESS PROFITS DENIED M9NEY USED TO SUBSIDISE DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) LONDON, April 1. A Buenos Aires message says that General Peron denied that the Government was exploiting Argentine farmers, and said the Argentine Government’s buying monopoly was forced upon it by the methods of countries baying from the Argentine. It was not true that the Government made a lot of money out of the recent wheat sales, for it used the profits to subsidise domestic consumption. General Peron said that, in order to assist shortages in Britain, the Argentine Government had authorised the Argentine Meat Producers’ Corporation to send 4,300 tons of frozen mutton and 2.C100 tons of coal to Britain. This, is the first time the Argentine has shipped coal to.Britaiiij which previously was Argentina’s chief supplier. A British agricultural mission, headed by Sir William Gavin, has arrived in Buenos Aires to discuss increased exports of British pedigree livestock and farm machinery to the Argentine. The ‘ News Chronicle,’ commenting editorially upon Argentina’s refusal to join in the international wheat agreement at present under discussion in London, says the reasons for this independence are not far to seek. By remaining outside the agreement, the Argentine can do extremely well for itself for two or three years, but when conditions are stabilised she may well find herself with the bulk of her wheat harvest left on her hands. 'lf such a situation should arise, there would be little sympathy for a country which has so cynically refused co-operation. The wheat pact, says the paper, can, and will, operate without’ the Argentine.