MEAT FOR BRITAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23719, 27 July 1940, Page 13

MEAT FOR BRITAIN

MR. DUNCAN'S STATEMENT PRESS REPORT CORRECT [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Friday The Meat Producers' Board has issued the following statement: —"It is unfortunate that the statement of the Meat Board's chairman, Mr. T. A. Duncan, at Cambridge, has been challenged, and that it has been represented that Mr. Duncftn has now repudiated that statement as published in the press.

"During an interview with representatives of the board, the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, referred to the purport of a telephono message he had received from Cambridge. Mr. Duncan repudiated the accuracy of this message, as it did not correctly express what he had said. At the time of the interview with Mr. Nash, Mr. Duncan had not seen the newspaper report of his speech. Later, having seen the report, Mr. Duncan affirms that the newspaper report is substantially correct."

Speaking at a meeting in Cambridge on Tuesday, Mr. Duncan said that as far as he knew no definite information had been received from the British Government as to what it required from New Zealand in the way of meat products. There was no certainty that Great Britain would take all New Zealand's meat, and ewe mutton might bo the first to be discarded. "I am not even certain about that 10,000 extra tons of pork one has heard so much about," lie said. Mr. Duncan added that at present there was no indication that shipping preference would bo given to any of New Zealand's meat products. The Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, said in the House of Representatives on Wednesday that Mr. Duncan had denied having made the statement attributed to him. "I have seen Mr. Duncan himself about it." Mr. Nash said, "and he says he did not make any statement that could be interpreted that way."