THE FOOD SHORTAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 244, 12 October 1917, Page 5

THE FOOD SHORTAGE.

NOT DUE TO SEA LOSSES. , DECREASED PRODUCTION THE CAUSE. (Received 12.40 p/zi.) t LONDO2C, October 11. t Mr Lloyd George, receiving agricultural . representatives, appealed to the farmers j to secure an enormous increase in food 1 supplies. He did so, not because he was s afraid of submarines—as he could state j definitely that the submarine menace was I rapidly diminishing—but because the -, world's stock of food was the smallest , in years. The diminution of French and 5 Italian cereal production had thrown ,\ France and Italy on to the markets of . i the world. He deprecated as unfair the , I abuse of the farmer, which, he said, was 1 due to ignorance of the precariousness of t his business. He was convinced that the f majority of the people were grateful for the farmers' achievement last spring in t adding 700,000 acres to the area, under . cultivation in England alone. He asked , the farmers now to improve that achieve- , ment. "We do not want to go on to the - American market," he said, "to snatch food from the mouths of the Allies." (A. and X.Z. and Reuter.l