COMING SCRAMBLE FOR MEAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17823, 3 January 1920, Page 5

COMING SCRAMBLE FOR MEAT

I "SITUATION FULL OF MENACE." AMERICAN PACKERS' MONOPOLY. GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION SUGGESTED. (Fkoh Oub Own Cokbksi'onijknt.) LONDON, October 30. The problem of food supplies in tho months ahead presents very serious dillknilties, and in one respect—that of incut suj>piies—a situation already "lull of menace is made more menacing by tho fact that a great meat trust ii> ready to exploit tho position to its advantage." Such was the main purport of a speech delivered at Loughborough by Mr M'Lurdy, Parliamentary Secretary to tho Ministry of Food, replying to the statement of tho Miners' Federation that the action of the Government had failed to restrict tho upward trend of the cost of living, /but Jio said quite plainly that there was no prospect of any groat fall in prices. The most that can be hoped for, is the stabilisation of prices and their maintenance at a reasonable level, and to secure this end some form of Government control would bo necessary— a control taking tho form of supervision rather than interference.

The future sources of food supply for Great Britain have yet to bo established. The rest of Europe will come into the market as a competitor for meat imports, and all the exportable surplus supplies of New Zealand, Australia, South America, and South Africa are barely sufficient to meet our own needs. The result is that a scramble is inevitable "if Europe lias any money next year to buy food." WORLD SHORTAGE OF MEAT.

"Do not imagine," said Mr M'Curdy, "that the United States or South America, or all existing resources of the British Ejiv pire, are sufficient for our future need?, or that a policy of frcctrade and laissoz fa ire will see us through. It will not. Already in 1914 the home production of beef and mutton in the United States was in> sufficient for homo consumption. If wo take all kinds of meat produced in the United States tho figures suggest that the United States will in a measurable number of years cease to be an exporting country, and be a competitor with us for supplies from other countries. Turning to principal European countries, apart from Russia, wu find an annual consumption of 10.000,000 tons of meat before the war, of which hot more than 250,000 was imported. But the war has greatly changed this state of affairs, and the live stock of Europe has been reduced by a third. For some years Europe will need to import far larger quantities of meat if its peoples are to lie properly fed.' -

SPECULATIVE Before the war this country imported a million tons of meat and bacon every yenr, and home supplies amounted to 1£ million tons. Supplies of home pigs and sheep are down, and we shall want to import more than a million tons next year, and the rest of Europe will want three million tons. "There will not lx> enough meat in the world available to supply the needs of Europe next year. All the exportable surplus meat from Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa will together amount to no more than 1.210,000 tons-a total barely sufficient to meet the needs of the United Kingdom alone., to say nothing of anyone else. A scramble for meat _ imports seems inevitable. It is a situation full of menace, and made more menacing by the fact that a great meat trust is ready to exploit the position to its advantage. A monopolistic group of North American packers already control a. large part of the surnlus meat supplies of the world. A food shortage of tiiis kind, in the absence of control, must lead to speculative profiteering on a very disturbing scale." TO STABILISE SUPPLIES. Mr M'Curdy added that high prices were an evil, but that fluctuating prices—rapidly rising and falling—would be productive of far worse consequences to our national lif<-. The main problem of food control for the next few years would be to stabilise supplies and maintain a reasonable price level. Therefore some kind of Government control, not too rigid, would be necessary. Compulsory powers cannot be dispense) with, but the need for their exercise should became less frequent as the situation is more generally understood.