FLOUR FOR EAST INDIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 13, 16 January 1946, Page 5

FLOUR FOR EAST INDIES

AUSTRALIA LOSES TRADE Recd. 10 p.m. Sydney. Jan. 15. Because Australian wharf labourers refuse to load Dutch ships the Netherlands East. Indies Government has placca orders for flour in the United States, according to a statement issued to-dav by the Indies Import and Export. Organisation here. When Japan capitulated the Indies placed a large order for flour in Australia, but only one ship got. away before the black ban operated last September. Before the war Australia had a monopoly of the Netherlands East Indies flour trade, sending 100,000 tons, valued at £1,500,000 each year. An official stated to-day that this figure 'epresents requirements for 1946. “This is a national disaster,” said the secretary of the Flourmillers' Association of New South Wales, Mr. A. L. Jells, to-day, in urging the immediate lifting of the ban. The manager of one of Sydney’s largest mills said it was incomprehensible that the Government should allow a minority to determine the country's foreign policy to the detriment of the export trade. It was hard before, the war to retain the Indies markets. It would be a lot harder now the initial advantage lay with America.