§ Mr. G. Straussasked the President of the Board of Trade (r) whether a Report of the work of the International Wheat Council is yet available; whether a meeting was held in January in accordance with the provision of the Draft Wheat Convention; and, if so, with what results;
(2) whether it is possible to give any indication as to the conditions which will have to prevail before the International Wheat Conference referred oto in the memorandum signed at Washington on 22nd April is convened?
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§ Mr. DaltonThe memorandum of 22nd April, 1942, provides that
the United States, so soon as after consultation with other countries it deems the time propitious, should convene a Wheat Conference of the nations having a substantial interest in international trade in wheat which are willing to participate.The International Wheat Council held its regular biannual meeting on 28th and 29th January last. No formal report was made but the following communique was published at the close of the meeting:The Council appraised the present and prospective supply position in Argentina, Australia, Canada and the United States and concluded that, despite the heavy demand in both. Canada and the United States for wheat to feed to livestock, the aggregate stocks of wheat in those four countries at the end of their 1942/43 crop-years would be the highest on record, about 1,750 to 1,800 million bushels compared with the previous high record figure of about 1,325 million bushels at the end of their 1941/42 crop-years. The delegates discussed the plans now being made to control wheat production in 1943 and concluded that those would probably result in a further substantial reduction in wheat acreage in each of the four countries, particularly in those countries where the greatly increased livestock population and the national campaigns to promote increased production of special war crops will facilitate the diversion of wheat lands to other uses. The members of the Council exchanged views on preparations to ensure that there shall be no delay in the provision of wheat and wheat flour for inter-governmental relief in war-sticken and other necessitous areas so soon as circumstances permit. With a view to facilitating the provision of such relief the Council empowered its Executive Committee to assume, upon the establishment of the intergovernmental relief body envisaged in the international wheat agreement, the Council's authority to call upon the governments concerned to give their already agreed contribution to the relief pool. The Council instructed its Executive Committee to request the Governments of Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States to deliver part or all of their initial contributions of 25, 25 and 50 million bushels respectively at the times, rates and places and in the forms recommended by that Committee after consultation with the intergovernmental relief body.