FOOD FOR BRITAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 50, 2 March 1943, Page 4

FOOD FOR BRITAIN

HEAD OF BRITISH MISSION IN NEW ZEALAND (P.A.) Wellington. March 1. “The action taken by Britain's representatives at Ottawa to safeguard her agriculture has been fully justified by its capacity to expand to a great extent since the war began.” said Mr. W. Bankes Amery, of the British Government Food Mission to Australia and New Zealand, in an interview to-night. “Some statisticians say that twothirds of the present food consumption in Britain is home-produced. It it. had not been for this we should have been in a very bad position.” Mr. Amery said that his colleague, Mr. R. C. Hinton, who is in Melbourne, and he were entrusted witn the investigation of the food situation in Australia and New Zealand with a view to keeping the Ministry of Food fully posted as to the amount available. after supplying the Allied forces in the area and the civilian populations, for shipment to Britain or other nlaces in which it might be needed. It was realised that, with the drain ot manpower into the armed services, nroduction must fail and that the needs of the armies in the Pacific were considerable, but nevertheless the surplus was wanted by the Ministry. Latest statistical estimates showed that a surplus would be sent forward.

Mr. Hinton and he would be cooperating with the two Governments in the preparation of reports, and would also help the local Governments In any wav in which they could from experience gained by the Ministry of Food in its work in Britain. Their mission would cover the period of the war. Mr. Amery has been with the Ministry of Food since its inception at the beginning of the war. Before that he was in the Economic Division of the Dominions Office, and thus had met succeeding Ministers and representatives of New Zealand who had visited Britain. Mr. Amery will deliver a broadcast address on the present food situation in Britain before he returns to Australia.