THE MEAT COMMANDEER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14128, 28 May 1920, Page 4

THE MEAT COMMANDEER.

According to a statement made by the Prime Minister at a meeting of producers at Wellington yesterday, the meat commandeer is to be discontinued. What is the outlook which faces the farlmer as the result of this? As Mr Massey Tightly stated, the farmer is “up againkt it.” The farmer of this Dominion has never had a “square deal” in regard to'Tiis meat. His produce'was commandeered during the war, and he now finds that, through the scandalous blundering, perversely or malignantly committed, he has a serious prejudice to. fight, The consumer at Home will not purchase stale New Zealand mutton when he can obtain the fresh American produce. This state of affairs will drive the English consumer into the arms of the American Meat. Trust, because the consumer, once bitten over stale New Zealand meat, will not be prepared to risk what ho would consider a possibility of a repetition. Nobody thinks for a moment that the Government of this country will let the producer down, but what control has our Government over conditions at the other end? There has been too much Americanising of things in England during and Bince the war, which the Lloyd George Government has encouraged. The British nation has, we venture to say, been betrayed to American interests, and the New Zealand farmer sacrificed for the benefit of the American Meat Trust;- .