STILL FOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 46, 22 February 1918, Page 6

STILL FOOD.

LONDON RATXOHIHG. WORLD'S SUPPLIES REVIEWED. (From Onr Special Correspondent.) LONDON, December 21. In all the outcry as to Hie ' world shortage of food there is some elender icomfort in the dictum of Sir Henry Row, jadmittedlv a first-rate authority on the question." "On the whole," he said, 'there seen* reason to believe that there are, and will be, adequate supplies of meat in the world to satisfy the demands ot carnivorous Europe, again assuming that they can be shipped. Nothing that has been said modifies tbe grave fact that the most rigid economy of food ie essential now, and until the end of the war. for the simple reason that tbe food available is limited, not by the amount which exists' in the world, but by the quantity which can be produced in, or brought to, the country which ncette it." In brief Sir Henry's view ifi that the shortage is not likely to be as great as usually alleged . . . shipping facilities is. of course, quite another question. He elaborated his thesis .on the following i lines. The chances of peace coming before ithe next harvest in the Northern llemi.sphere seemed remote, and the present [probabilities were in favour of good crops in the T'nited States and Canada 'next year. The area rowti with winter j wheat in the United States wae said to be 2,000,000 acres in excess of that eown last year. As for the belligerents —"'while tV.ere is evidence,'' he said, "of some reduction of the corn area in Austria, there H none in Germany, although the yield I has been much reduced, by reason of inIflufliciency of fertilisers and of labour. Germany in the firs! year after tho war jwill probably put a larger area under com than she hae over had. She will stil! [need to import cereals, but there are J resources in the East upon which she I will draw. Tt is improbable that much |eurplus grain will be found either in. | Russia or Rumania when the war ends, ;but together they will almost certainly !bo able to supply all that CJermany and Austria desire to buy. If thov do this, the reet of the importin<» countries after the war. as during its progress, must , rely upon extra-European sources of : supply. Tiie grain exporting countries during the war have added altogether :nearly 35.000.000 acres to their (orngrowing area, which should be more than j sufficient to compensate for the absence lof supplies from Russia and the Hal[kans." , I On the other hand, the Allied position . in his view is that "the civil population , iof tbe Central Empires has been reduced I by probably one million during the war. ' t without reckoning the lo. c ees of the '< 'armies at the front. The Inited King- ■ dom population tip to now ie stationary —i.e.. the war lowsos have boon balanced 1 |by the ™am in births —but France and ' ; Italy will probably have a smaller num■jber to feed after the war thsn before : ;it. Krom such partial information as ■ I has appeared, it is difficult to put thi , ' present reduction of food roquirenionte by 10--n of man-power at Ws than 1,000.000 tons of cereals nlone. The average food consumption per head of (he men mentioned will be lefs when they return to civil life, and the waste of food inevitable in the maintenance of vast armies will cease. I fail at present to see any reason to anticipate—except as tiie result of an abnormal failure of the world's crops —that tho quantity of bread corn in the world will be infiuffi- , cjent to meet the world's demand, alwavfl , iprovided that if can be transported from the place where it exists to the place , where it. is wanted." While these forecasts may hold some .comfort the actual everyday position j worsens. Tlip queues lengthen the hardi ship to tho poor, and fo the worker who has nn home or domestic lich) it is harder [ than ever. It lias been left to Binning r .ham to take the lead, nnd that populous , (centre lias a Food Commit'ep that i« , i putting a compulsory rationing si-homo. . into action. i Tf was easy enough to rompci Oie retailer and the consumer to come in. but . the supply, there lay the difficulty. Thfl committee could not coerce Sic wholeI salers. and tliry wotiM probably liny" sot no further with their proposals if j, |Lord Rhonddu, the Food Controller. hart • jnot liacd the enormous influence of his D .Department, and constrsiinad the wholesalers to acquiesce. v The household information mi lh< .- sugar forms is the statistical basis o; j the Rirmingli.im scheme. Knch of tin i> '220.GCK) householders w to have a font ;> carii. on which bi> ptirrhaice will bi P enlered week by week. On one side •> c the card k a perforated slip divinibli f into two —a tea portion and a bttttei or margerine portion. The Food Com f iniltee mnkes out the card to the pur c chaser, tilling in tile namp and the nun] c her of person-; in the family. It is tin I. purchaser's duly to leave the tea hal of the perforated slip with the rctailei from whom he wi.--hes to ffef his tea. am the otJier portion with the retailer fron whom he wishps to buy butter or mar gerinc. In moet cnees. no doubt.. Ih< same shop will pef both. Tho retailw keeps the suip and the customer keep; the card, which he must present whej d he wiehes to mak a purchiLsc. In th< c centre of the card are two paralle '. columns, where the retailer has to entei '• in ink or indelible pencil the amount i. of each week's purchases. *. The Ministry of /ood hae promisor r- Rirmtngham its fair share of th( >"- rationed articles, (ircater Birminghan r. has, roughly, a war population of a mil ]ion. If the total population of the coun t>. try is 40 millions. Birmingham will gd : -~> oiie-fortipfh of the available supplies c The goods will ro.ae.li the city tbrougl - the ordinary trade channels, but. onci d there they pass under the control o ie the Food Committee, which will estab c lish a pool, having, in theory at a! m events, a regular and proportionate out >f flow to every retail estubliehment. Tin >t •scheme will come into force oi is January 1. 'Preston has a singularly ingeniouj ■s method of abolishing queues at it. , p shops. It has issued hourly tickets— z is sort of eroiss between a ration schp.nv c and the Paris ibus tickei; idea, and ha. , proved so sur-cessful that other town.! s are adopting it. The tickets are sup i> plied to shopkeepers by the.local Foot s C'ojitrol Committee, and bear tl>e naiiii X of tnp. executive officer, the address o: s the eliop, and the hour at which tin pnrchaee may bo made. Distribution o i* the tickets is made by the shopkeepei c on the day for which they are available £ The eystem may diminish queues—anc k that is' a. posritive ffain —but it will no! T get at the root evil of short supplies. c What hae led to recrimination and s * pood deal of class feeling is the know 3 ledge, that, tbe poor are being mosl hardly pressed, and a most ingenious scheme was broached in a letter to th« "Tinice" suggesting food mqney-^-a b mcanii< of rationing , food bj rationing I the monej it-pent on food.

"Food -is ■to too divided into ■ three categories: 'Essential' food, semi-essen-tial or 'comfortable' food, and 'luxuries' Now, the State is to issue three classes of tickets, representing these three categories. Letu3 call them red, white and blue. These tickets are to be the sole recognised methods of purchaeing , food-:; staffs. The State, of course, selle the tickets. Each individual or head of the | family, pro rata, is entitled to purchase, . say, seven red tickets per week at 1/j; each. This red ticket enables the holder i, to purchase in exchange one shilling's ■ worth of ; essential foodstuffs—bread,! ■ meat, sugar, and so forth—at the maximum prices fixed by the State. The; second ticket (the white), representing the semi-eeeential food—i.e.. the 'com-' fortable' class—is to be soid by the I State at a cost of 1/3, but to be only, valid for the purchase of a shilling's worth also. Here let' mc interpose the suggestion that instead of semi-essential food, difficult to classify, the white ticket might be available for the purchase of essential food, after the requirements of the red are satisfied. "All other foodstuffs will come under the luxury ticket, the l>luc, sold at a cost of 1/0, and valid for the purchase, of one shilling's worth also. The red and white tickets will, as stated, be limited in number per head, but (hero appeare no reason for limiting , the luxury tickets. They will brine; in a large revenue to the Exchequer, and everyone will be enabled to indulge his palate, at tlie expense of 50 per cent tax, if the articles are available." A by-product of this scheme in that it would provide a 6ource of revenue to the State. Not a revenue derived by taxing the necessities of tlie poor, but by taxing; the relatively needless consumption of the rich and well-to-do. While pr«<jressive Ministers are wisely keeping ahead of the State in feeling their way towards equitable and not too cumbersome rationing schemes, the work {roes on apstee. stimulated by the Kooil Controller, of encouraging central kitchens with the object already achieved by those established—flome l-> 0 under War Savings Local Committees — of saving broad and eereule, and popularising other kinds of fond, savins* fuel, helping homes where the women are away on war work—''children will be able to procure hot men's for them-

selves" —and meeting a real shortage of j