FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1917. A HUNGRY WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 148, 22 June 1917, Page 4

FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1917. A HUNGRY WORLD.

The action America is taking to give the Allies all the food she can may have a serious effect on neutrals. President Wilson has now decided to enforce an embargo on all exports; neutrals can get grain and other essentials only under license. Tho whole of Europe is hungry, ■ and the Allies and tho United States control several of the great sources of ' importable food. Tho entry of America ' enables the Grand Alliance to tighten its blockado of Germany through neutrals, because it is now in a better position than ever to impose on neutrals : conditions pressing hardly on the enemy. Neutrals are feeling the pinch severely. "All three Scandinavian countries are i threatened with tho most 6erious ' difficulties," wrote a Stockholm correspondent early in March. "Sweden has , not enough grain to last till next har- : vest, and she is doubtful whether she j will ever see the 200,000 tons of flour already ordered in America by the State , Food Commission. Denmark's caso is j worse. She is threatened in greater I degree than Sweden with shortage of ' grain, and the suspension of her dairy . produce exports to England threatens , her trade balance. Still worse is Nor- ' way's lot. Norway produces a smaller proportion of food thau either of her j neighbours, and she. risks both having no i food and having her chief industry, * shipping, permanently lamed." None of 1 tbeae countries is self-supporting in grain. While the British Government has ( not yet deemed it necessary to introduce ) compulsory rationing, the card system ' has been in force in Denmark and Scan- ! dinavia for some time. Switzerland is , also short of food. "The difficulty of ; i getting raw material and foodstuffs is !' becoming greater every day," writes a j, correspondent, "and provisions of all ; < kinds are much dearer, whilst potatoes, butter, and sugar are frequently not to be had at all. Two meatless days a week have been introduced in all the cantons, 1 and further restrictions are under con- ' sideration." ' It) has been the policy of Britain ' to "ration" neutrals by voluntary ' agreement with trade organisations j' in these countries. Every endeavour I is made to limit neutrals' imports [ to their true domestic requirements, \ 1 This is admittedly very difficult, but the ' Foreign Office claims that the system [ has on the whole worked successfully. ' It has apparently worked least satisfactorily in Sweden, which, owing to the | : strength of its pro-German elements, has ! given Britain more trouble than any of i the other European neutrals. One of the causes of the unrest in Sweden! Beams to Ira that while, food; la yeryj-

scarce the, Goveernment permits exportation of food to Germany. The United States can be of great assistance to Britain in checking exports of ail kinds to these countries at their source. A New York statistician says that in 1913 America supplied Norway -with. 8,391,458 dollars worth, of goods, largely cottonseed meal and cotton-eeed cake for feeding cattle, sheep, and pigs. In 1916 Norway received 66,207,744 dollars worth of goods, and no doubt a good deal of tho increase went to Germany. Sweden received in 1913 12,104,366 dollars worth of goods, and in 19 IB no less than 48,353,357 dollars worth of goods. Denmark in 1913 received 18,687,791 dollars worth of goods, and ha 1916 56,551,153 dollars worth of goods. Wheat and oil figures are also illuminating. In 1916 America exported 854,000,000 gallons of oil, and the Netherlands, with one-eighth of the population of Great Britain and Ireland, purchased more than one-third as much illuminating oil. The United States can now decide where American goods are to go to, and all the official machinery of Ministers and Consuls can be employed to see that neutrals do not break whatever agreements they make about re-exports. Sir Edward Carson has said that in blockading Germany the Navy is being "enormously assisted" by America.

The Allies -will now be able to take a firmer stand with njeutraJs than the}- have ever been able to take before, and it is conceivable that action by America might force other neutrals into the war on our side. The Allies, however, do not want to antagonise neutrals. On ruo-al and material grounds it is their policy to be friendly with them, and probably in spite of tho shortage of food in Britain and France, America and her Allies will allow a certain amount of food to go to neutrals, subject to their restricting exports to Germans. But should the food situation become more serious, the whole of America's surplus food supply will have to go to the Allies. Those who stand aloof from this struggle, though their own interests are vitally involved iv the issue, cannot complain if the upholders of civilisation devote the whole of their wealth to their own wants. Between the determination of the Allies and the desperation of Germany the neutrals are in danger of suffering '-cry severely indeed.