POSSIBLE CUT IN BRITISH FOOD RATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 59, 10 March 1944, Page 6

POSSIBLE CUT IN BRITISH FOOD RATION

MONOTONY OF MENUS

Appeal To Dominions To Keep Up Supplies

X.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 9. The prospect of any further cut in Britain's rations of meat, cheese and milk products—it has been announced that the cheese ration will be reduced one ounce to two ounces per person weekly after April 2 —is causing uneasiness in official circles, said Sir Jack Drummond, chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Food. Interviewed by the Associated Press, he emphasised that there was no danger of the British people going hungry if the meat and cheese rations were reduced below the present levels, but he warned that a cut would be very serious from the psvchological viewpoint. He, therefore wished New Zealand and Australian producers to realise the vital part they were playing in maintaining the'morale, in addition to the health of the British people. "We weathered the bad period of spring and winter of 1940-41 when there was no real shortage of iood, A' the general diet suddenly fell «PKw the margin fixed as the warTms minimum for foods of good protein value—meat, cheese and other milk products." he continued. -Food then became plainer, less tasty, less attractive and generally more monotonous. People Lost Weight "The people simply did not want to- eat, therefore the average adult lost between 71b and 211b in weight. People weren't hungry because they had plenty of potatoes and vegetables, which are capable of maintaining weight if eaten. Lack of variation of diet stopped the people Instancing the effects of this food monotony. Sir Jack Drummond mentioned morale generally, and industrial efficiency particularly. He warned that the British people now were unlikely to withstand similar cuts in the basic protein foods as well as they withstood them in 1940. "We were then emerging from a period in which we lived comparatively well. It could be different to-day after a long period of hard war, during three and a half years of which the British people have existed on a pretty monotonous diet containing a much smaller proportion of proteins than before the war. "We are, therefore, hoping that New Zealanders and Australians, who have done such a magnificent job, will take us over the crucial period ahead."