IS EUROPE’S CUPBOARD BARE?
Commenting on the food situation in Europe a prominent writer in the Christian Science Monitor says; Prime Minister Churchill and the United States Department of Agriculture concur in estimating that there is enough food in Europe to sustain rationed diets, provided the focd is properly distributed. Berlin, in direct or indirect control of every transport system in Central, Northern, and Western Europe. repeatedly assures Germans and the outside world that no German will go hungry, certainly not the soldiers who now enjoy many double
rations
The rest of Europe enjoys no such promise. Nazi attitudes tow aid conquered peoples were expressed in a German radiocast recorded in New York:
“Now, who in the world ever expected a victor to provide his enemies or former enemies with food? Nazi Germany boasts that Herr Hitler has made the Reich blockadeproof. Yet even in 19 38, Germany depended on imports for 17 per cent, of its food.
How much food has been carried away to Germany from Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Poland, and France is not fully known to the outside world. That “massive requisitions” were levied by the occupying army in France is vouched for reliably. Transfer of food from occupied Prance to Germany has occurred on a large scale, The Christian Science Monitor learns on highest authority. Transfers from unoccupied France have been considerable, but figures are unavailable. Germany not only keeps its own food movements secret but imposes secrecy on the French.
One of the severest results of war and German demands is the depletion of condensed milk supplies, used almost exclusively for feeding infants. Europe uses its cream to make cheese and butter, canning the milk. Canning was interrupted seriously this year.
In unoccupied France, reports persist that nearly 1,500,000 animals, mostly hogs, were demanded by Germany, France, however, refused. In occupied France the requisitioning of horses and of meat cattle has been heavy. An eye-witness of one incident describes the killing at Paris of more than 1,000 cattle, Germans taking most of them. More than 1,40 0 carloads of potatoes were shipped out of unoccupied Prance in a few days, resulting in a shortage over the local region affected. Procurement divisions of the occupying armies employ special marks. Sometimes these are convertible at once into French francs or other local currencies. At other times the German money cannot be exchanged. In all cases, these payments would literally become scraps of paper in event of a German defeat. Even when direct removal of foodstuffs is not widespread, the Nazi armies of occupation cause a steady and heavy drain on national stocks. In Norway, the 150,000 Nazi soldiers require fats axfd meats that are difficult to send from Germany. Flour is reported coming in from the Reich but Norway’s milk, hogs, and poultry must spread to cover needs of the invaders.
In Belgium, where all gold had been sent to safekeeping abroad before the German occupation, fiat mon,ey is in use by the Germans, with no metallic base.
Sweden, nominally independent but subject to both German and Russian pressure, has rations but is not critically pressed for general foods. Another six months of inability to import fodder, fats, and oils, according to authorities, will result in severe shortages.
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Bibliographic details
Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13241, 17 January 1941, Page 2
Word Count
541IS EUROPE’S CUPBOARD BARE? Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13241, 17 January 1941, Page 2
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