Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1941. LIMITS ON MEAT EXPORTS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 January 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1941. LIMITS ON MEAT EXPORTS.

it concerns not only primary producers, but the whole population of the Dominion, the decision ot the British Government to impose restrictions on shipments ol meat from Xew Zealand to the United Kingdom raises serious prospects, .lust how serious the position is and is to become depends on the scale of the restrictions —a matter apparently not yet finally determined —and on the period for which they will have to be continued.

It goes without saying that there can he only one response bv .New Zealand to the action the Mother Country has found it necessary to take. In these days when a life and death war makes first call upon the resources of Britain and her Dominions, and the people of the Homeland are daily and nightly enduring death, injury and a wholesale destruction of property, the primary producers of this country and their fellow citizens will neither repine at nor object to an economic sacrifice. N<> doubt it will be agreed readily that in this period of emergency the considerations which normally tire paramount in Imperial trading relations must be set aside wherever that wilt make the united war effort more effective.

Some details of Ihe measures that become necessary in the Dominion are already defined quite clearly. A considerable amount of extra storage for meat is under construction ami this work evidently must be pushed ahead with all possible expedition. The most, must be made, also, of any possibility that exists of diverting meat to American or other markets in the Pacific. Other considerations apart, however, the fundamental factor of shipping shortage will set definite limits to action on these lines.

An important question, touched upon only tentatively as yet by the Minister of Marketing (Mr Nash) relates to the conditions in which the Government is to deal with producers on the one hand and with the British Government on the other, in regard to meat which cannot meantime be shipped, On this subject the Minister has said that negotiations with Britain are still in progress and tha! : —

The Government had undertaken to buy the whole of the producers’ meat supply for this season, but this was at prices free on board. It was possible that a charge would have to be made for the necessary storage because of the restrictions. There would have to be some discussion of this matter. Clauses in the Government's purchasing contract gave the right to claim something for storage. . . .

Some limit presumably must be set to the enlorcenieiil oi this light. Otherwise, at an extreme view and in the event ol meat having to be stored for lengthy periods, the return to meat producers might be eliminated or converted into a debit balance. While the lines of adjustment in detail no doubt are fairly open to discussion, the view may be expected to prevail that an economic loss arising purely out of an eniergiency ol war should not fall wholly on the aoction of the community immediately affected. Similarly Britain no doubt will be prepared to recognise that the cost of the adjustments now made necessary should not fall on New Zealand alone. At best, however, the effects of any considerable restriction of meal exports —a branch of trade which in recent years has vielded gross returns of from £15,000.000 to £17.000,01k) a year -—are bound to react seriously in one way and another on our total national economy and to make themselves felt widely throughout the community. It now becomes more than ever necessary that our national economy should be overhauled at ail points with a view to eliminating unnecessary expenditure and using to the very best advantage the resources that remain available. Amongst other things, a further restriction of imports is likely to become unavoidable. More than ever, too, it now becomes essential that everything humanly possible should be done to expedite the unloading and loading of ships in this country. Whatever is done to reduce tin* time ■'petit by ships in oiir ports will in effect increase the amount oi shipping tonnage still available and the volume of produce it will still be possible to export. NEUTRALITY & SELF-DEFENCE. '{'HERE has been no plainer definition of the MtittHioii in which the United Stales is called upon to play its part in the struggle between flic democracies mid lhe totalitarian aggressors than that given by .Mr Cordell Hull in his statement to the Foreign Relations Committee of the American House of R<‘prvsentativos. Even in the iiggressur countries it is likely to be recognised, lliough it will no! he ack imw led ged publicly, that .Mr Hull made out a powerful ami unanswerable vase in support of his eon! ent ion that: ’’The security of tin* Western Hemisphere rentiers imperative ,-dl possible speed ill giving aid !<* the democracies." Xo one has set out the realities of the existing siuiatioii more plainly, or with more telling elfecf than Mr Hull did in his temcly worded references to both (Jermany ami Japan. <bily those whose outlook is deliberately criminal or who are blinded by prejudice will deny that Mr Hull was on firm ground when he said It is necessary to recognise that Germany’s programme is a world movement of conquest and to act in .self-defence -.* is too late. -Only lhe law of self-defence can he invoked U-m any practical viewpoint 1 could m,-t tn gout! ci-mcn-nrc ;;dvi-<-my fellow-citizens to follow the course of Holland, Belgium ,i.; i others who followed lhe lule- of neutrality to th-<-vcr|.s-t m; destruction . For us to withhold md from ‘h< n.- ' aggression would not tend to ensure peace but w.-.ild d perpetuate enslavement and allow the gathmr -m; .sn for :m attacJ: against us This is no more open to fair ihaflrtige than Mr H'df s <->pmi.v ■•mphatie rondem mi t ion of Japan as a nation ilehberately .-jsci esiablishmt' an unjust domin.it k-h o\>-r others It may be anticipated tlmi Mr Hui! s ohserwii i<uis wui ,u no small decree confirm am! stren■'! Itm the d*■t«-rmina’ um •>. lllc people of tin- United States "Io mt m s.-l f del e; ; -<- !i<-; : i .s rm, late ’ fo Britain and !><t wm-s. f.wd stii! bj .. imi grim task, these observations v. ul at the arm 1 ’urn* carry in asstirnner of support and r.i? .< •. based upon .. solid I’*- - .:!;-t.u* :oit <if j.ojie •» imi'v.d