London, Apr. 26.
Apart from war years, the past year has been the most anxious and disturbed year in the history of ihe Liverpool corn trade, says the annual report of the Liverpool Corn Trade Association. The report attributes this to the steep decline in world prices combined with acts of Governments which have hindered free exports, imports, storage and distribution of wheat. Particularly, it says, the action of the British Government is stated to have curtailed the economic storage space.
In view of the uncertainty of when security stock would be released, the report declares, the trade has not cared to contract for supplies ahead in the normal manner. The Association complains that the Government should have selected three large milling firms only as channels through which security stock could be accumulated, leaving the trade as a whole in the dark concerning the Governments intentions regarding holdings.
Referring to the storage question, the Association is glad to say ihat in the last few weeks the food defence plans department has been doing its utmost to release storage space by 2 considerabi reducing the security stock in public warehouses in Liverpool, with a resultant increase in private stocks.
The report criticizes the United States Government's sale of 3,000,000 quarters on a subsidy basis. The effect of this sale on Liverpool futures, it adds, was to drive down prices and curtail business.
Regarding the present efforts of the International Advisory Committee, the Association is not optimistic, commenting that the technical dif-culties appear insuperable.
Moreover, the report concludes, it will be up-hill work for exporting countries to persuade European nations to pay less attention to the protection of farmers, unless exporters reduce their own barriers against imports.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.