OUR FROZEN MEAT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 10 April 1917, Page 6

OUR FROZEN MEAT.

•Prior to the war the United Kingdom was virtually the only market lor frozen meat. Almost all the supplies from New Zealand, Australia, and the Argentine found their way to Great Britain. Last year, however, large quantities of frozen beef, mutton, and lamb were diverted to the Continent to feed the armies of France and Italy, as well as ,of Great Britain, and Messrs W. Weddel and Co. point out in their annual review that "frozen, as opposed to freshlykilled, meat is now universally recognised as an almost indispensable foodstuff, from the view-point both of utility and economy, in the commissariat arrangements of a modern army." It is probable, therefore, that the popularising on the Continent of frozen meat as an article ,of diet will lead to a considerable extension of the trade atier the war. "There is every prospect," declare Messrs Weddel, "that after the war Germany, Austria, Belgium, and probably other European countries, will require to import refrigerated meats, thereby increasing th e difficulty of securing the quantities needed for Great Britain." The British nation, as a whole, it is estimated, was last year eating practically the same amount of meat as in peace time. A factor contributing to .this, no doubt, was the existence of abundance of employment at wages -which largely extended the circle of people whose diet regularly included a substantial amount of meuc. The request of Lord Davenport, the Food Controller, for the voluntary rationing of the population was made at the heginning of February, simultaneously with" the opening of the German campaign of unrestricted activity. It will be interesting to see what effect it aas on the meat consumption of the United Kingdom. AMERICAN BEEF TRUST. Messrs Weddel and Co. are at no pains to conceal their feeing of uneasiness with respect to the operations of the American Beef Trust. In their review of the trade they express the belief tbat unless British interests as such are preserved, fostered, and developend as against all others, the day cannot be far distant when the British imported supplies of meat "will be controlled entirely by nonBritish capitalists with unlimited financial backing." As they observe, the alarming extent of German "penetration" into essential British industries was not fully realised until after the outbreak of war, and they urge that "penetration of the same kind by any foreign interest into any British import food trade, must ultimately prove to be no less embarrassing a'hd dangerous to the public weal, unless it can be kept within safe and reasonable limits." The able and powerful foreign capitalists, who are aiming at the control of the meat trade in the British dominions, can, Messrs" Weddel and Co. remark, hardly avoid crushing out of existence the smaller independent British traders in their pursuance of their trading rights, and it is suggested that they will almost inexitatily do so, unless their momentum can be checked In some way by Government action, either at Home or in the Dominions.