Few Ships For

Copra

Urgent Appeals to London

DURING the month, owing to the seizure of all available merchant ships by the British Government, and the consequent restriction of ship ping in the Pacific, copra has been pil ing up in the stores, at all Pacific points of shipment, and big firms, which usually can be depended upon to purchase all copra coming forward, have urgently asked producers to hold supplies back as long as possible.

The action of the British Government in taking control of the three ships of the W. R. Carpenter line—the “Suva” the “Salamaua” and the “Rabaul” —and ordering them to Australia to carry Australian produce to England, has been one of the principal factors in causing embarrassment in the Pacific. These ships have been regularly lifting 20,000 to 30,000 tons of copra a year, and carrying same to European and Ameri can ports.

During the month, the most urgent representations were made to the Com monwealth Government on behalf of planters in the Australian Pacific Terri tories. The newly appointed Minister for Commerce (Mr. Cameron) was in terviewed at different times by, among others, the Administrator of New Guinea (Sir Walter McNicoll), by the head of W. R. Carpenter and Co. (Sir Walter Carpenter), by Hon. W. E.

Grose, M.L.C., on behalf of New Guinea planters, and by the Editor of the “Paci fic Islands Monthly”. The latter pointed out that the producers of copra in the Australian-Pacific Territories were just as much the responsibility of the Aus tralian Government as the producers of butter or wheat or wool in Australia, and were entitled to the same considera tion in regard to the provision of freights.

It was ascertained that the Austra lian Government really has very little power—all the shipping appears to be controlled by the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Fbod in London, who merely transmit orders to their agents in Australia. It is considered likely as a result of the confusion and loss which have ensued, that a consider able measure of freight control will be transferred to the Federal Government.

As a result of strong representations made to London by Canberra, the Car penter freighter “Suva”, which had been earmarked to load Australian pro duce, was instructed to pick up a cargo of copra in New Guinea and other ports, with the result that between 6,000 and 7,000 tons were shifted. This did not give a great deal of relief, however— there still are many similar cargoes at Pacific ports awaiting shipment.

A bad feature of the situation, which developed early in April, was the an nouncement that Mexico, which had been buying a large part of the Paci fic copra available, had got into holts with American interests—it had some thing to do with the price of silver— and the Mexicans had ceased to buy copra. This probably is only a tem porary phase, but it was severely em barrassing in the present circumstances.

Compulsory Pool?

The formation of a compulsory copra pool, controlled by the Government, for the purpose of receiving and marketing copra, so as to ensure a stabilised mar ket to producers, and avoid exploitation by private buyers, was urged by Mr.

J. C. Mullaly, in a speech before the New Guinea Legislative Council on April 2. He declared that, if some thing were not done along these lines, many planters would face bankruptcy.

The Administrator acknowledged that the position, from the point of view of the copra producer was serious—espe cially the present inability to ship copra to world markets. He reviewed the ship ping position and intimated that there was “a possibility that the British Min istry of Food would buy a cargo of copra and allot transport for it.”