No Interference With Wool Marketing

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 15, 3 November 1950, Page 2

No Interference With Wool Marketing

The chairman of the Meat and Wool Section council of Federated Farmers, Mr S. D. Reeves, said that sheepfarmers would view with grave concern the possibility of any interference with the present system of free marketing of wool. Mr Reeves said the council had passed a resolution objecting strongly to any alteration in the present system of selling wool at auction. This clearly stated the views of woolgrowers. Woolgrowers could not understand why the auction method of selling wool had been singled out by the United States for legislative control, Mr Reeves said, especially as there appeared to be no move to control the method of sale, or the price of other commodities, such as rubber, cotton, zinc, tungsten, nickel, and petrol. These commodities, with the exception of rubber, came partly from dollar sources, and were as important for military purposes as wool. It appeared that if the United States wished to be assured of wool supplies for military purposes, it could do this effectively by two methods which it did not normally use. It could employ buyers to bid at the wool auction in the Dominion, or it could place orders for additional requirements for cloth with mills in the United Kingdom.

Mr Reeves said he would be grateful to receive information regarding any action being taken to control other commodities, any administration or distribution schemes adopted for them, and the method of controlling prices for such commodities. He would also be grateful if the Government could advise woolgrowers whether members of the United Nations other than the three Dominions were taking similar steps to control wool sales by some form of pre-emption at the request of the United States. “I cannot understand,” said Mr Reeves, “the suggestion that dollars earned by pre-emption of wool will be more readily available for purchase of imports from dollar areas than under the existing system by which the United Kingdom Government controls the Commonwealth dollar pool.”