DOMINIONS AGREE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 155, 29 December 1938, Page 9

DOMINIONS AGREE

LICENSING SCHEME

MUTTON AND LAMB

IMPORTS TO BRITAIN

(By TeleKraph—-Press Association— Copyright, i

(Received December 29, 10.45 a.m.)

LONDON, December 28,

The Australian Associated Press says that the Empire Beef Council will start next week on the preliminaries of a licensing scheme for the regulation of mutton and lamb imports from the Dominions, on the lines of the Government's decision

on December 20,

It is expected that the scheme will open early\ in January. It is learned that Australia and New Zealand have accepted the new policy, though New Zealand at first raised strong objections. Britain finally pointed out that restrictions were becoming so essential that' she would be obliged to institute them with or without the Dominions' agreement, and stated that the claims pi foreign imports could be restricted before there was any limitation of Dominion products. It was also pointed out that although the Ottawa Agreement fixed the foreign quota at 35 per cent., the Dominions are supplying 80 per cent. An important aspect of the Government's new policy is the retention of the Beef Council, not only to control, imports, but also to investigate the possibilities of increasing meat consumption at home and abroad. There is little doubt that control is necessitated to a large degree by^ the success of New Zealand's publicity, which has resulted in housewives asking for frozen mutton and lamb instead of fresh United Kingdom products. ,