FOOD SHORTAGE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 249, 29 July 1940, Page 3

FOOD SHORTAGE

PROBLEM IN GERMANY. INDICATIONS OF HARDSHIP. ;United Press Association. —Copyright.) LONDON, July 27. A message from Berne says that the food shortage in occupied France is forcing the Germans to release hundreds of thousands of prisoners, who are being deported to the unoccupied territory, irrespective of their original domicile. Twenty-six thousand piisoners have been released from camp surgeries.

German-controlled broadcasts to occupied territories now contain almost daily indications of the economic hardships which they are suffering under German occupation, says a British Official Wireless message. As Germany’s own needs take precedence over those of the occupied peoples, the broadcasts also indicate where the shoe is pinching in Germany. Germany’s difficulties over fuel oil are well known. An illustration of what they mean for Norway was provided in a recent broadcast from Denmark. This stated that the Norwegian administration had decided, to maintain only the most necessary coastal traffic, to save as much as possible the Norwegian supplies of oil. Holland,, too, has to suffer to make up the Reich’s deficiencies. Dutch housewives who have received the following advice doubtless reflected that it was unnecessary before they enjoyed the German “protection.’’ Housewives were told that they should be economical in the use of fuel, and that it was not necessary to wash knives,, cups and silver three times a day in hot water. Once was sufficient. This saved water, soda, soap and fuel. The use of hayboxes for cooking was also recommended, and /the announcer added that the use of raw vegetables and fruit saved fuel. Another announc'ement to the Dutch people explained that because of the shortage of chicken fodder, instructions had been given that poultry in Holland must be reduced to 6,000,000 before September 15. This is approximately one-third of the normal number.

Two broadcast items from different parts of the vast network of German and German-controlled wireless propaganda, when brought into juxtaposition, throw light on the way in. which the Nazis are bringing badly-needed relief to the food shortage they have created for the German people by depriving the peoples of occupied territory of their rightful supplies. On the night of July 26, the Germancontrolled Brussels wireless apologised for an acute shortage of butter in Antwerp and, to a lesser extent, all over Flanders. It was stated by the announcer that the: reason for the shortage was that only a small part of the local butter supplies was purchased for the German Army. The disappearance of the commodity from the town markets was principally a result, he suggested, of the fact that “a gang of criminal dealers’’ had purchased blitter at dairies and from farmers.

On the same night, the German home programme from Deutschlandsender broadcast, a triumphant announcement of a “special additional butter ration of 125 grammes a head for the population of Germany.”