FOOD PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 197, 20 August 1940, Page 7

FOOD PROBLEM.

No Need For Starvation In Spite Of Blockade. BRITISH JOURNALS VIEW. British Official Wireless. (Reed. 10 a.m.) RUGBY. Aug. 10. The food situation in Europe durin" tho coming winter, and the possibility of widespread starvation, is reviewed in the "Economist." "First, may it be said that there need be no starvation. even in a Europe cut off from overseas supplies," says the journal. It adds: "On a three-year average, from 193G to 1938, the Continent was entirely «=elfsuflicient in potatoes and virtually so in rye, barley, oats, beans and sugar. "Against production figures of some 42,000.000 tons of wheat, 19.000.000 tons of maize, and 1,000,000 tons of rice, the import' figures were about 3,000,000 tons of rice. "Uniformly bad harvest*, due to n hard winter, the calling of agricultural labourers to the colours, and the actual destruction of warfare will have increased Europe's dependence on outside supplies, but there are large reserves to draw upon. Live stock can be killed off and tinned foods and Germany's own stocks can be consumed. "Nazi leaders boast of over 7,000,000 ions of grain stored away in the Reich, a figure which all but covers Europe's normal deficit; and, although the peoples of the Continent must inevitably go short of tropical foods and certain luxuries, and suffer from a deficiency of fats, the forecast of starving is not warranted by the actual quantities of food likely to be available. 'The problem, in «hort, i« one of distribution, not of actual supply."