PROBLEM FOR CABINET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27510, 3 October 1950, Page 5

PROBLEM FOR CABINET

New Zealand Press Association —Copyright

Rec. 7 p.m. CANBERRA, Oct. 2. Proposals designed to meet American and British requests for a large quota of this season’s wool clip for defence purposes are believed to have been submitted to the Australian Government by the Minister for Commerce, Mr J. McEwen, who is now in London. Cable messages from Mr McEwen have been under discussion by a Cabinet subcommittee for two days.

The Government faces the problem of meeting the British and American requests without disturbing the established method of wool sales by auction.

Although secrecy is being maintained it is believed that the United States wants 1,500,000 bales or about 40 per cent, of the year’s production, while Britain also wants a large quota. The most practical method of meeting the request would be a government-to-government arrangement involving the compulsory acquisition of the clip by the Australian Government on an appraisal basis, but this would not be acceptable to the industry.

Victorian woolgrowers will hold a mass meeting to protest against the proposals to levy a sectional tax on wool. Announcing this, the secretary of the Victorian Wheat and Woolgrowers’ Association, Mr J. B. Bryant, said woolgrowers were hostile to any Government plans because no effort was being made by the Government to confer with the growers themselves. There was the impression that woolgrowers were wallowing in wealth, but many were still paying off mortgages. Discussions in New Zealand

A Press Association message from Wellington says: Cabinet held a long discussion today on proposals received from London for the future marketing of wool. This was stated by the Prime Minister, Mr Holland, when commenting on the cablegram from Canberra saying that these proposals had similarly been occupying the attention of a sub-committee of the Federal Cabinet. Mr Holland said the Government had received a constant flow of cablegrams dealing with wool in the last few days. The Minister of Marketing, Mr Holyoake, who had been attending the Wool Conference in London, was expected to reach Auckland on Sunday next. The nature of the proposals could not be revealed until Mr Holyoake had been able to meet Cabinet and elaborate on the information contained in the cablegrams.