AUSTRALIA LOSES ORDERS FROM INDIES

Chronicle (Levin), 11 April 1946, Page 5

AUSTRALIA LOSES ORDERS FROM INDIES

| jBFFECT OF CONTINUED SH1PP1N i HOLD-UPS i Received Wednesday, 9.30 p.m. SYDNEY, April 10. Orders- for Austraiian goods wort.. 1 £6,01 0,000 are heing cancelled by th. [ Netlierlands East Indieg Governme:)! ! this week because continued shippmg ! hold-ups make it impossible to shift the I goods. j Recent discussions indicated that an J agreement had heen reached betweexi , the Dutch and the Austraiian Govern i ments and the waterside unions, biii during the last few days the position has deteriorated again. Now the chief of the Indies Govem ment import and export organisation in Australia is sending letters to 250 Austraiian firms cancelling orders.' The organisation was prepared to store the , goods untii shipping was nossibie, bur has been ordered to quit four wareI houses. The cancelled . orders range from machine tools to motor buses. Mr. E. Roach, assistant Federal secre tary of the Waterside Workers' Federa tion, said that a settlement satisfactory to both his and the Sfcamen's Union haa been reached at the conference which Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten at tended. The statement hy Mr. Chifley that a spanner had heen thrown into the works was correct, but the spanner had not heen thrown hy the unions. Details of the "satisfactory arrauge ment," the "spanner" and the circumstances under which the Dutch authorities were ordered to vacate the ware houses are not yet obtainable.