WORLD SUPPLIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21580, 6 December 1944, Page 4

WORLD SUPPLIES

FOOD AND WHALE-OIL RESEARCH CONTINUES ANTARCTIC PARTIES 1 (10 a.m.) CANBERRA, Dec. 0. Secret British research now .being conducted in the Antarctic may have an important bearing on the problems of world food supplies and communications after the war. A party which has been in the Falkland islands Dependency since April is now being joined by a second expedition of British scientists. It is officially explained here that meteorological stations in Grahamland and the South Shetlands would provide some of the missing links needed for accurate forecasting of weather in Australia, New Zealand, southern South America and South Africa. Such information was vital for assuring the world of food supplies from the Southern Hemisphere, as well as .for the .operation of airlines.

The British expedition is also collecting data on whales. While the Allied Governments concerned, including New Zealand, recognise the urgency of a speedy post-war replenishment of the world’s stocks of oils and fats, they agreed at a conference held in London in February to restrict the whale catch in the first year after the war to 64 per cent of the 1938-39 figure. The object is to preserve the whale species. In 1938-39, Antarctic whaling produced about 500,000 barrels of whale oil, valued at 615,000.000.