SUGGESTED 'FOOD SHIP'

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 212, 13 September 1940, Page 5

SUGGESTED 'FOOD SHIP'

NO VESSELS AVAILABLE 'INADVISABLE AT PRESENT TIME' The suggestion mooted at the Whakatane Red Cross Committee meeting early in July, that a 'Gift Ship' be despatched! to the people of England, carrying produce from this country, has been described by the Minister of Finance, in a letter to the secretary, Mrs D. Pearse, as inr advisable at the present time in view of numerous other appeals and to the fact that the foodstuff supplies in the Old Country are now at storage capacity. In his letter, the Hon Walter Nash states that the matter has been re-i ferred to him by the Prime Minister, in view of his capacity as Minister for Marketing* "The proposal," he says, "has received the consideration of the Government and has also been discussed with the Secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board. The position at the moment, however, is that all ships are already engaged in carrying foodstuffs and other essential primary products to the Unit ed Kingdom. Under these circumstances it is regretted that a vessel could not be made available for a "gift cargo" without a serious dislocation of our shipping programme. "It is understood, moreover, that at the present time supplies of foodstuffs are up to the storage capacity of the United Kingdom particularly in regard to the products which New Zealand has available . for export. The Secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board has advised thatalthough the Board is fully in accord with the idea of assisting the United Kingdom if it were at all practicable to do so, it is thought that in view of the appeals in various parts of New Zealand for money for the purpose of providing aeroplanes and arms, and of the urgent necessity for building up Patriotic Funds for purposes other than sick and wounded, it would be inadvisable at the present time to launch a scheme such as that suggested by your Society. "The spirit in which the suggestion has been put forward is'nevertheless much appreciated by the Government."