FOOD DISTRIBUTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1942, Page 4

FOOD DISTRIBUTION

SCHEME TO SAVE /MANPOWER UN BRITAIN FORMATION OF NATIONAL COMPANIES. MANY SMALL SHOPS TO CLOSE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright)' LONDON, April 29. In order to concentrate industry and save manpower, the Ministry of Food is forming national companies to purchase, import and distribute meat, butter and cheese. The scheme involves the closing down of many of the smaller butchers’ shops and will .put 150 butter and cheese importers out of business, the latter, however, providing a proportion of the capital, on which they will receive dividends. GIFTS FROM OVERSEAS. The Ministry of Food has made new arrangements for the pooling of gifts of food from overseas addresses to various organisations. The arrangements do not affect bona fide unsolicited gifts to individuals in Britain or gifts sent through approved channels to units or men of the Dominion, Allied or colonial forces. An overseas food gifts allocations centre will be set up to ensure that the gifts are distributed as fairly as possible. No restriction will be imposed, as in the past, on the inclusion of rationed foods in gifts. Friends abroad will be asked to address gifts to the centre and under the revised procedure their gifts will reach those who most need them. Donors, however, may earmark gifts for a specific organisation or purpose and, provided the quantities are reasonable, they will be distributed accordingly. The centre will retain final discretion over distribution. All bulk gifts intended for prisoners of war will be handed over to the British Red Cross. While the Ministry is grateful for the goodwill expressed in these overseas gifts, the paramount consideration must be the provision of goods for the community as a whole. It will not, therefore, be possible for gifts to be shipped at the expense of other shipping space. OliL FUEL ECONOMIES. The Minister of War Transport, Lord Leathers, announced in the House of Lords that the Government-had de-, cided that immediate action should be taken to require operators to equip as soon as practicable 10,000 commercial vehicles with producer gas apparatus. The Secretary for Mines, Mr D. R. Grenfell, told the House of Commons that a certain number of men serving in the Army in the British Isles were now being released to return to coal mines. It was hoped, he said, to secure a further, increase in manpower by the return to mining of a.number of exminers employed in other industries.