CRY FOR FOOD

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 113, 15 May 1942, Page 5

CRY FOR FOOD

HUNGER IN EUROPE

Nazi Blunder Causes Loss Of

Main Larder

United Press Association.—Copyright, Special Correspondent.

LONDON, May 14. The cry for food is already rising up from German-occupied Europe There is a growing indication that Germany herself is feeling the pinch &he is worried by the difficulty of draining supplies from the countries she has occupied.

The Financial News comments that there is a marked deterioration in the lood situation in Germany which is a surprise to the United Nations. ♦ i,!wu r - m ? d s, ir ? les are of the opinion that this food deterioration is largely Germany s own responsibility. She made a fatal blunder when she invaded the Balkans and attacked the Soviet Union through south-eastern and eastern Europe, for there was her principal larder.

The Yugoslav and Ukraine campaigns in 1941 resulted in the destruction of large quantities of food which otherwise would have been available for Germany. The present fighting in those areas creates difficulty in transporting such supplies as are available, and even the most optimistic German experts do not anticipate that they will be able to obtain food supplies from the Ukraine before 1943.

Slowing Down Germans

Although Germany believed that she could squeeze food from her subject races, the quantities obtained are below her expectations, and, in spite of her ruthless exploitation, it is not sufficient to secure an adequate diet for the German people.

The 1942 crop forecasts from Ger-man-occupied France are far from satisfactory, and the hard winter destroyed a large part of the potato crop in Germany, and affected other crops. But it would be foolish to expect an early collapse in Germany on account of the food situation yet an inadequate diet is bound to slow down the German arms output.

The authorities to-day must provide for some 10,000,000 more people than they had before the war, taking into account imported labour, repatriated Germans, the normal rise in population, and prisoners of war. It is believed that one in every four is employed in agriculture, while married women and girls living at home are conscripted for fieldwork. Italy is also making a desperate effort to cultivate food, because her sowings last year were 20 to 40 per cent below normal, and the severe winter played havoc with her potato crop. While nobody sympathises with the Axis food shortage, it is an unhappy corollary that the occupied countries are also suffering.

Famine Haunts Norway

Reports from Norway state that the presence of 200,000 German troops has created an acute food problem about which Quisling's newspaper Frittfolk said: "We will be facing famine if we do not fully exert ourselves and produce more food."

Turkey is also experiencing food difficulties as a result of last year's deficient crops, and, in spite of the 70,000 tons of wheat imported through the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation, the Turkish Government has been compelled to adopt drastic measures to preserve supplies for the army. Tnus, in addition to the cruelties and savagery that the Germans have Imposed on Europe, there now stalks the spectre of hunger. It is comfort to the European peoples to realise that the Germans themselves are short. Germany's food position in 1942 may be compared with that of