REICH SAVES FOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 13

REICH SAVES FOOD.

RATION ' PLANNING. "DISCARD NOTHING" CAMPAIGN. BERLIN. While at the Nuremberg party convention Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler's new economic four-year plan was being proclaimed with a view to rendering Germany as independent as "possible of raw material imports from abroad, stringent measures were contemplated in the German capital to "stretch" domestic supplies of food and other essential stuffs to the utmost. To attain this end, citizens of the Third Reich will have to submit to a rationing system similar to that imposed on the subjects of Wilhelm 11. during the World War, recent developments indicate. In an extraordirihry meeting of the wholesale trade section of the Reich economic organisation the introduction of "ration cards" was strongly advocated by an influential group.

This group advised that the new measure be put into operation as early as November 1. They claimed that Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Minister of Economics, favours this scheme "in principle, since it would enlighten German authorities on the actual volume requirements." It was reported that representatives of the wholesale and retail trade supported the plan, whereas those representing the interests of foodstuff firms and coalmining companies violently opposed it. Ration Cards Already Printed. Notwithstanding this opposition, the matter developed so far that the ration cards have been printed and dispatched to the administrative provincial offices for distribution at short notice. These cards, it is said, are drawn up so as to provide for different kinds of food — such as bread, potatoes, fats and oils of every variety, meat, eggs, coal aifd soap—in order to meet any emergency., Final decision on the matter may be expected soon after the conclusion of the party congress. If it is in favour of ration cards, it would hardly come as a surprise to the German people, in view of the scarcity or even temporary lack of foodstuffs at varying intervals. As usual in such, periods, the town populations are harder hit than the country sections. So far as Berlin is concerned, the scarcity of meat is the chief calamity now. The shortage of . eggs and butter seems to be overcome for the time being. Hint to Shopkeepers. The following statement by the "Wirtschafts-Politiseher Dienst" is significant of the German authorities' atti- . tude: "The consumer, ought to consider the situation with some understanding and buy more fruit, vegetables and fish. The consumer, ought to adjust his re- - quirements according to the supplies on hand, 'and not - demand goods that are scarce, but those which" are plentiful." This publication thinks it would be a fine mission for the shopkeepers to educate buyers in this direction. "Unfortunately," it says editorially, "cases are manifold when, instead of pointing out temporary reasons for a shortage, one indulges in predictions which are out of place. Originators of such forecasts should be punished without mercy." TJrged to Save Bones. "Gastwirths Zeitung" (the "Innkeepers' Gazette") admonishes its .readers not to throw away bones carelessly, but to collect and turn them over to the central office, since they are valuable material. This summons and notice in the German Press not to waste fallen fruit but to , use it for cooking purposes will certainly recall domestic war-time troubles to the minds of the German people. It remains to be seen whether the explanation for the food shortage given by Hitler {at, Nuremberg—namely, that it is due. to increased purchasing power in connection with the re-employment of millions of former jobless—will be an effective remedy for the food calamity ' to the man in the 'street.-* Possibly he will bear in mind the utterance of Dr. Joseph Paul * Goebbels, Minister of Propagande, to the effect that not even Nazis can induce hens to lay eggs. *