Mof Copra Price To Be Challenged

Move by Solomons Planters

A SMALL group of Solomon Islands copra producers have decided to challenge the powers of the BSI Gov ernment in relation to the British Ministry of Food contract. They will ship certain copra away, in free ships, to the free market, and will accept the open market price.

They say they entered into no contract, and they challenge the right of the BSI Government to bind them to the MOF price. They point out that as they got no war damage compensation, are forced to pay a 15 per cent, export tax as well as income tax, and are charged 6/- per acre for their land, they are entitled in all fairness to the best available price for their copra.

The outcome will be awaited with in terest by New Guinea planters and Fiji producers.

There is a strong movement afoot among NG planters to challenge the MOF contract. No one outside Canberra has seen the contract, or been able to get any details of it.

The planters want to know who ar ranged the contract, who signed it, and under what authority the Australian Government takes all their copra and sells it to Britain in return for Britain’s now

depreciated currency.

The Fiji and, now, the BSI planters support this demand for more informa- The MOF contract was made in 1948, for a period of nine years. Under it, the price may not fluctuate, in one year, more than 10 per cent.

NG Planters Await Reply from

Canberra

THERE have been no further develop ments in the discussions which have been taking place between the New Guinea Planters’ Association and the Australian Government, relating to the price being paid for NG Copra.

The NG planters—like all copra pro ducers within the Empire who are subject to the MOF copra contract—are dissatis fied with the price they are receiving Copra has a definite value in the world market; but this was not taken into con sideration by Britain, when, after de valuation of the £ Sterling, she continued to implement the MOF contract for the purchase of Empire Copra.

In other words, Britain has continued to pay for the copra with the same number of £’s Sterling per ton, although in re lation to world values the £ lost a sub stantial proportion of its former value.

Planters within the Empire have been protesting against this contract which some of them describe as a “double cross —and are seeking a revision. S 9 far, the Australian ministers and officials con cerned have not been in favour of the planter’s arguments; but the discussions are not yet finished.

The NG planters have a particular grievance in the fact that Australian crushers who take about half the NG production have been getting the copra at MOP prices. As the Australian mills get world prices for anything they export, and as there is no reason why Australian crushers should get benefits at the expense of the NG planters, the NG planters are

demanding that the Australian crushers should pay world prices instead of MOP prices for their Copra.

The crushers have presented to the Australian Government a series of argu ments to show why they should receive preferential treatment.

These issues—presented in October by the delegates of me NG planters’ associa tion —are now apparently awaiting decision by the Australian Minister for External Territories, Mr. Spender, who has been abroad. He returned to Australia in mid- November but there has been no an nouncement.