FOOD OR FAMINE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 56, 8 March 1946, Page 5

FOOD OR FAMINE

GRIM SUBJECT IN U SWHEAT SAVING SCHEME CRITICISED Recd. 9.10 p.m. New York, March 6. Lord Halifax, British Ambassador to U.S.A., held a conference with Mr. Byrnes, Secretary of State, with the expressed intention of talking “food and famine—a grim "Subject," whilst the same subject prompted major moves on Capitol Hill, says the "New York Times’ ” Washington correspondent.

The Deputy Economic Stabilisation Director, James Brownlee, asked the House Banking and Currency Committee to approve of a 2,051,0L_‘J)00dollar subsidy programme, including refunds on food for next fiscal year, saying that the programme was ncessary to hold back the whirl of inflation and warning that a sudden stoppage of subsidies would result in an immediate 8 per cent, r.se in food costs and a3i per cent, rise in the over-all cost of living. Simultaneously a large bi-partisan group conferred to form a committee for the revision of the price control law.

• Meanwhile the vice-president of the Chicago Board of Trade, Richard Wehlmann, told the social committee investigating food that the Government’s recent bread-saving order was a futile gesture un’.en the United States stopped feeding the major part of its wheat supply to animals. He said: “The little that is going to be saved 'by eating one slice of bread less will amount to less than 25,000,000 bushels, whereas 250,000,000 bushels have been fed to animals since January 1, 1946.”

He predicted that the effeej of the new wheat-saving order would not be felt until October, which was too late to meet the European food emergency.