STUDENTS GOING HUNGRY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25363, 10 December 1947, Page 7

STUDENTS GOING HUNGRY

RATIONS AT ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES (Special Correspondent N.Z.PJt.) (Bee. 8 p.m,) LONDON. December 9. Complaints of insufficient food by students at a number of the Igrtfer universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, led university authorities tp request the Ministry of Food to discuss the situation with them. The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, Dr. T. S. Stallybrass, said that the feeding of students at all the Oxford colleges was “appalling, and much worse than at any time during the war.”

The cut in the potato ration appears to have brought matters to a head. Earlier in the year, when university authorities complained to the Ministry of Fqod that the allocations made to thejn under their catering licences were insufficient, the Ministry refused to intervene, claiming that the amount of food issued was sufficient to provide two main meals a day. Since the ?otato ration was reduced, however, urther and more urgent representations have been made, and the Ministry has agreed to review the matter. At both Oxford and Cambridge it is claimed that students living in lodgings are going on very short commons. and that those wfio have not the money to supplement their meals by eating in restaurants are going hungry. At both universities it is stated tq bp a common practice for students to eat in the hall, and then rush out to join the nearest queue at a cheap restaurant. This practice does not endear them to the townspeople. “These youngsters are at the hungry age? said a bursar at one of the universities. “They work hard and play hard. Many of them, who have been recently demobilised, are accustomed to service rations. When they cpme here they find themselves on short rations.” For the first time in its history a recent.issue of the Oxford University ma«azxne, .“Cherwell.” contains a cookery recipe upder tfie slogan, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we diet? '