MEAT GLUT AT PORT OF LONDON.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1920, Page 10

MEAT GLUT AT PORT OF LONDON.

FOOD CONTROLLER'S REPLY

London, Jan. 20. The congestion at the Port of London, where 33 steamers are waiting *to discharge their cargoes, was aggravated, it is stated, by the cessation of work during the Christmas holidays. Much of the confusion, however, is'due to the arrival of exceptionally heavy cargoes of tea and frozen meat.

The glut of meat, which has led to the choking of every available cubic foot of old storage, seems, in part at least, to be the result of a want of co-ordina-tion between Government Departments. The importation of meat from abroad is controlled by the Board of Trade, and the Board uler pressure, it may be from Dominion Governments with large stocks accumulated during the war, arranged in the later months of last year for large shipments of frozen mutton from Australia and New Zealand. These arrived at a time when home supplies, delayed in their preparation by the drought last June, were being rushed on the markets. Attempts to create a demand for the imported meat by reducing the price and removing the rationing regulations have failed to relieve the congestion in any appreciable way. The Ministry of Food could probably have foreshadowed the development of the situation which has arisen, but so far as we are aware there was no effective consultation between the Food Controller and the Board of Trade on the matter.

With regard to criticisms of the Ministry of Food, Mr. G. H. Roberts, the Food Controller, stated that the responsibility could not possibly be laid at his door, as the Ministry of Food was not responsible for either transport or storage except in the case of certain controlled articles. ,

VAST SUM INVOLVED. " The 33 steamers waiting to discharge their cargoes in the docks in London last week represented more than 191,000 tons gross. This total may be taken as equivalent to about 261,000 tons deadweight. Taking the average value of the vessels; as £4O per ton deadweight, the value represented by all this idle shipping amounts to nearly £10,500,000.

An average value for the cargo of these ships might be estimated on a very moderate basis as being £500,000. The value of the cargoes of the ships laden with foodstuffs from Australasia would, in fact, be very much larger.-But on the basis of. a value of £500,000 each, the cargo of the 33 ships would represent £10,500,000. That, with the value of £10,500,000 for the steamers means that property is now lying idle representing £27,000,000- Some of the ships have been idle for weeks.