LAST MINUTE AGREEMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 September 1946, Page 7

LAST MINUTE AGREEMENT

BRITISH MISSION TO ARGENTINA MEAT SUPPLIES ASSURED [N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.] (Rec. 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 16. After many reports of imminent breakdowns in the negotiations, now confirmed in London, the British mission to Argentina has reached a satisfactory last-minute agreement with the Peron Government. The chief stumbling block to the agreement was the disposal of the Argentina blocked sterling balances in London, amounting to £140,000,000, but an agreement has now been reached for free dispersal of these balances. This question had a direct bearing upon the future of the British-owned railways in Argentina, in which over £250,000,000 in British capital is invested. The agreement provides that a joint An gio-Argentine board of control shall operate and develop these railways. The third major question under discussion was the future of the Anglo-Argentine meat agreements. Although at one stage of the negotiations the Argentine Government threatened to break off the shipments of meat the new agreement provides that these shall be continued at prices to be agreed upon later. As Argentine meat supplies at present comprise approximately one-quarter ot the total British meat ration the uncertain progress of the negotiations has been watched with considerable interest in Britain. The press and the city to-day welcome the news of the agreement, news of which has caused Argentine railway shares to jump sharply on the London Stock Exchange. One of the chief British negotiators in Buenos Aires has been Sir Henry Turner, formerly of Christchurch, director of the Meat and Livestock Division of the Ministry of Food.