operate depdts or stalls indirectly through English registered 
companies. On the other hand, two English firms, namely, 
Messrs. Borthwick and the Union Cold Storage group, and one 
American firm, Messrs. Swift, each of which has its own distribu- 
tive organisation in this country, also own meat works in the 
Dominions; the main operations of the two latter are. of course. 
sentred in South America. 
On the whole, therefore, it can be said that the South 
American trade embraces the wholesaling of the product, while 
the Dominion trade touches wholesaling only to a very limited 
extent and confines itself, in the main, to representation in the 
chief ports and to selling to the wholesale trade. 
In many towns, various wholesale meat-traders, not connected 
with the importing organisations, have stalls or shops and buy 
from the importers or, at times, direct from the overseas source 
of supply, which is usually the Dominions for this class of trade. 
Here and there, retail butchers are banded together in a loose 
form of wholesale buying association and, through their repre- 
sentatives, they purchase direct ex-ship, or even c.if., though 
this latter is risky and may, at times. strain collective-buying to 
the breaking point. 
Before a ship arrives at a port, its cargo is allocated and 
arrangements made to ensure its quick dispatch by rail or road 
to the points where it is required. Frozen goods not required 
for immediate sale are placed in cold store at the port or trans- 
ported to a cold store in a centre convenient for subsequent 
distribution ; chilled beef is always sent direct ex-ship to depots 
for prompt sale. In wholesale meat distribution, the motor 
lorry, with trailer-van, is playing an increasingly important part 
because of its suitability for rapid point-to-point distribution of 
supplies. Most of the imported meat used in South Coast towns, 
for example, is now sent down by road over-night from London ; 
similarly, the towns in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and 
North Wales and, occasionally, towns as far distant as Hull, 
Middlesbrough and Newcastle, are served by road from the 
ports of Liverpool and Manchester. For long journeys, insulated 
railway meat-vans are used; in hot weather the temperature is 
kept low by ice.* Chilled beef is necessarily distributed over a 
more restricted area, and those districts remote from ports which 
cannot be reached in a few hours by rail are usually supplied 
with the frozen variety. The travelling salesmen operating 
from the various depOts are acquainted with particulars of the 
goods coming forward and with the time of arrival of the ship; 
it is their business to collect orders from the retail trade. These 
orders are grouped and, if the retail customers are outside the 
range of the motor lorry, the goods are dispatched to the traders’ 
rallwav station bv meat-van which is frequently attached to a 
* See, however, paragraph 51, ¢ Report of Inter-Departmental Com- 
mittee on Meat Supplies.” Cmd. 456. 1919.