PANIC-BUYING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1942, Page 3

PANIC-BUYING

OF RATIONED CLOTHING IN AUSTRALIA SYDNEY SHOPS CLOSE AFTER FEW MINUTES. GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF BUNGLING. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, May 12. All the rationed shops were closed in Sydney at 11 o’clock this morning. Some stores opened their doors for only a few minutes to admit a great crush of customers —then closed for the day, their ration quota sold out. Other centres report similar orgies of buying in what is generally admitted as the greatest shopping rush in the history of Australia. Almost every shop assistant can tell an. amazing tale of panic buying—by men as well as by women. One man this morning bought three dozen pairs of woollen underpants. Another man bought ten hats. Shoes are a most popular line. Women shoppers particularly are described as buying them in incredible quantities. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Fadden, has accused the Government and the Minister of War Organisation, Mr Dedman, of having “bungled” the clothes rationing. “By his own action, Mr Dedman has provided an incentive for panic buying, which is a sorry spectacle for a nation so gravely threatened as Australia,” declared Mr Fadden. “The announcement last Friday disorganised business throughout Australia and gave people with the means to buy on a large scale an unfair advantage over those who lacked ready money to buy the clothes they needed. The announcement defeated appeals by the Prime Minister, Mr Curtin, to the public to curtail unnecessary civil spending. “It is difficult to understand Mr Dedman’s announcement that a clothes rationing scheme would be introduced in the near future. Surely Mr Dedman is not so naive as to believe that the public will follow his advice and refrain from buying rushes.” The matter is believed likely to be further discussed when Parliament meets at Canberra tomorrow. Mr Dedman attended a retailers’ conference in Sydney today, but declined to make any prior statement, inspiring one Sydney journal to put up the heading, “Dedman Tell No Tales.”