STARVING GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 143, 16 June 1917, Page 6

STARVING GERMANY.

EVIDENCE FROM FIGURES.

There are still many people who have their doubts that the food situation in Germany is as bad as Entente journals assert. Tho evidence of figures, compiled from German official estimates, may. therefore, be of interest (says the Amsterdam correspondent of a London daily). The annual consumption of meat bofore the war was estimated at 34 kilos per head. The weekly ration has beeu reduced to 150 grains, which is only 7.S kilos per annum, less than one-seventh of normal. As for potatoes, the situation is disastrrous. Germany"s normal production amounted to 45,000,000 tons. The harvest of 191(3 produced only 24,000,000 tons. The weekly ration per head has been reduced from five pounds to three. The sugar supply for 1013-14 amounted to 2,400,000 tons; that for 1916-17 was estimated at 1,700,000 tons, a difference of 700,000 tons. Consumption per head before the war was 19 kilos per annum; the weekly ration is now 150 grams, eijual to 7.8 kilos per annum. Kggs and cheese are articles of diet almost unknown to-day. The ration of one egg per head per week has long since, been abandoned. There have beeu no eggß in Berlin for sixteen weeks.