EUROPE'S HUNGRY

Grey River Argus, 18 November 1946, Page 5

EUROPE'S HUNGRY

BUT GRAIN IN PLENTY

Contrast with the Americas

(Rec. 8.20). LONDON, Nov. 16. The financial editor of Reuter’s News Agency writes: —World grain bins are ready to burst. A huge glut awaits 1 buyers. World grain harvests this year are huge, with the biggest wheat crop since 1940, and the biggest maize crop in history. Great gluts dwarf the deficit of grain in Germany and savings effected by British rationing. Limitations are now, firstly, transport.; secondly, monev arrangements; thirdly, red tape complications and prevalence of misinformation. These all are serious, but are diminishing. The British Ministry of Food in the last few days is' believed to have acquired more Canadian wheat than at any time in recent months. The United States Government has recently been buying wheat for export faster than it could be shipped. Argentina, displaying signs of anxiety, has recently sold to the British Ministry of Food more maize, at falling prices, in spite of its shortage before the new harvest. The United States Government last week removed restrictions on flour exports to Latin America, West Africa, and certain other areas, but all of the buyers, with the exception of Brazil, are withdrawing. The United States Government has on hand swollen stocks of grain, which it will, probably, have to export. American farmers are anxious to sell their wheat stocks, because they can see the market, falling. The United States maize crop is now only being harvested. The bulk of Canada’s wheat has yet to come. The Argentine crop is now on the eve of harvest. It is estimated to be fifty per cent, bigger than that of last year. The fears of an approaching catastrophe were expressed by the Germans at a conference in Hesse on the food, electricity, and housing problems. Major-General Frank Keating, the Deputy-Military Governor of the United States zone in Germany, replying to the Germans’ fears, said: Canada and Australia have huge stocks of grain, but I have not heard that they are supporting Britain, and thus aiding the British zone in Germany. General Keating added that he must, however, point out that there are at present in Germany stores of food which are not all fulfilling their duty. He said that the United States would not let down the people in the American zone. The Food Minister, Mr Strachey, told a meeting of the National Union of Agricultural Workers in Essex that the immediate food situation both in Britain and the rest of the world remained one of the utmost gravity. He said that there now were the faintest signs of improvement in the world food situation, but the improvements in 1947 would be counter-balanced by the American action in the decontrolling of food prices. It would be physically impossible and criminally reckless for Britain to divert any of hex* cereals to Western Germany, as she did last year. Salvation lay with wheat exporting countries. Sir Sholto Douglas, after a twodays’ tour of the British zone in Germany, expressed the opinion that the Germans are hungry, but are not starving. The food crisis in the Ruhr is more severe than the crisis is in Hamburg. 23 . Shiploads of Food XMAS ARMADA FOR BRITAIN. (Rec. 9.50.) LONDON, Nov. 17. The Evening News says: A Christmas food armada is coming to Britain from the Pacific. It comprises twenty-three ships, which are packed with food. Six of the ships already are unloading goods from Australia and New Zealand, including meat, butter, eggs, cheese, fruit and tomato juice.

Seventeen more ships are due. A shipment of 31,997 tons of meat, is en route from New Zealand., and another shipment of 38,700 tons is coming from New Zealand. They are due soon after Christmas. There are also 8,569 cases of butter and 4,316 tons of cheese en route from New Zealand. Unable to Work HAMBURG RAILWAYMEN MAY STOP (Rec. 8.40). BERLIN, Nov. 17. At Hamburg, a meeting of 170 German engine- drivers and firemen passed a resolution stating that they will not be able to carry on if their food remains' as irregular and inadequate as it is at present. This is the first strike threat bv any German railway workers based on the food situation.

A German trades union spokesman told Reuter’s Agency that the engine drivers went to work one morning with one carrot foi' breakfast.

Major-General Frank Keating, De-puty-Governor, United States military zone in Germany, said that the United States', although interested in the unity of Germany, would not permit fusion plans to interfere with the United States’ promise to maintain a ration scale of 1500 calories in the American zone.

English Press View

GERMAN FARMERS SHOULD KILL OFF MORE LIVE STOCK (Rec. 530). LONDON, Nov. 16. The Times agricultural correspondent has been inspecting arrangements for the production of food in the British zone of Germany. He expresses the opinion that one of the troubles underlying the failure of a regular ration of supplies there is that detafled work in each district is now the responsibility of Germans, with the British exercising only a general supervision. He states: German officials are necessarily men who took no leading part in Nazi Party activities, and few of them are accustomed to carry responsibility, and they will not, or cannot, give a strong lead to

the local farming communities. Some are only too ready to refer back any difficulty to the British officials at headquarters, rather than take decisions that may prove awkward for them. The result is that German farmers are still allowed to look after their own interests first at the expense of the industrial copulation

The correspondent complains that in the present circumstances the German farmers are keeping too many cattle, pigs, and poultry* He says: “Figs are being fattened to heavy weights on potatoes lit for human consumption. The quota of meat deliveries from the farms may have been met. but there still are too many cattle living off tho land, which could be used for food production. In the past year the crop delivery quotas have been raised front war time levels, but farmers are still allowed to retain too much grain and fodder for feeding theix* live stock”.

Terrible Conditions IN BRITISH ZONE CITY <Rec. 9.5). LONDON. Nov. 16. On Friday, Sip Sholto Douglas paid a four-hour visit to Dusseldorf to examine conditions in the area. He inspected a large concrete surface air raid shelter in which 325 adults and children were living-—ll2 families. A Times' correspondent at Dusseldorf says: There are twenty-five such shelters in this city, and the German housing officials estimate that there are about thirteen thousand people living in them and living also in the cellars and basements of otherwise ruined houses. There also are about three thousand people having no permanent shelter, but who live with friends one night here, and the next, there. Altogether, according to the Germans, about forty-three thousand people are living in unsatisfactory conditions. In some places there are eight and nine people living and sleeping in one room. The population of Dusseldorf city at the end of the war was 215,000, but, with the return of evacuees, it now 420.000.