NEED FOR EXTRA FOOD IN U.K. IS REAL TODAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22623, 28 April 1948, Page 4

NEED FOR EXTRA FOOD IN U.K. IS REAL TODAY

The need for extra food in Britain today was a real one and New Zealanders could rest assured that the Homeland was in dire need of all the food the Dominion could produce, the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom in New Zealand, Sir Patrick Duff, told members of the i Gisborne Chamber of Commerce j on Monday night. j Sir Patrick Duff, in speaking of his recent visit to England, said that after a lapse of two years he could see conditions had definitely improved there. However, Britain was still only able to produce enough food for half her population. She had always had to buy food and her former European sources were now devastated. Therefore, -more food had to come from the Dominions and other overseas countries. . He had often been asked why Britain encouraged overseas tourists and held Olympic. Games during the present crisis. The few tourists were only a drop in the ocean of 47,000.000 people, however, and they also brought dollars and hard currency into the country. Much more food could be brought with this currency than could be eaten by the tourists during their slay. During the past two years Britain had been tidied up considerably. Rubble had been cleared away and class put back in shop windows. Many of those shops held beautiful manufactured goods, but many of them were marked “For export only.” The people had lost the sleepy look and the irritableness that had been brought on by the war and he was personally sure that Britain would play as great a part in the destinies of the future world as she had in the past. (Applause).