JOHN STRACHEY SAYS DANGER LINE IS NEAR

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25390, 13 January 1948, Page 6

JOHN STRACHEY SAYS DANGER LINE IS NEAR

BRITISH DIET

The following word-for-word report of a conversation with th. Minister of Food was reported to the New York Herald(issue o/December 20) by VINCENT SHEEAN, the celebrated foreign correspondent. (Reprinted by Arrangement.)

MR SHEEAN: The main question I want to ask is whether the people are getting enough to eat. MINISTER OF FOOD: The answer to that is this: so far, the least welloff sections of the British people have got—l won’t say enough, but more to eat in recent years than they have ever had before. MR SHEEAN: More in quantity, or in distribution of food values or in calories, or more in sjl . MINISTER OF FOOD: I think that speaking of the least well-off sections, one can say more in all those ways. MR SHEEAN: They never had planned food before in any way? MINISTER OF FOOD: They just had too little money to buy enough food to eat. It’s simply a question of having money in their pockets. That has been true so far. But I must tell you frankly and clearly that unless something intervenes to improve matters, that will no longer be true in the new year. In the first six months of the new year, we can at present only see our way to give the British people 2675 calories a day each and that, for the first time, is. m my opinion, below the danger line. It means a drop of about 200 calories a day each from what they have been getting up till now. Dollars Not Available MR SHEEAN: What does the drop come in? . MINISTER OF FOOD: The drop comes mainly in bacon and eggs from Canada, and in sugar from Cuba and elsewhere. And the cause of the drop ig not that these foods are no longer available— they are available—but we haven’t got dollars with which to pay for them. ’ I ought to add another .factor in the drop, and that is that we have had to ration potatoes. That, of course, has nothing to do with lack of dollars. That’s simply because we have had a very poor potato harvest. MR SHEEAN: Well, now. This problem, of course, is crucial and is central, but it isn’t new, actually. The circumstances are new, but the problem isn’t. MINISTER OF FOOD: That’s quite true and not usually realised. MR SHEEAN: In a world which disagrees rather fundamentally upon the ways of trade and exchange, it’s going to be rather difficult for a while, isn’t it? I am talking about the American notions of trade and exchange; the Russian notions of trade and exchange —they are very different. MINISTER OF FOOD: Indeed they are. But I see no reason why Britain cannot trade with America, for example, in the way she likes and with Russia in the way she prefers. There is no reason why we should not exchange our manufactured products with the Russians as with the Americans. MR SHEEAN: Or with the Argentine or with Australia. MINISTER OF FOOD: Good heavens, yes. The only thing that could prevent that would be a third world war. MR SHEEAN: Isn’t this cold war almost as bad for trade as a hot war would be? The separation between the East and West is almost as complete. MINISTER OF FOOD: I don’t think so. The Russians are anxious to begin selling us cereals, for example, ag you know. The only difficulty is for us to provide them with enough of the manufactured products which they need, because everybody else is clamouring for those same manufactured products-—steel, electrical goods, coal. In fact, there is just as great and as urgent a world demand for the manufactures we produce as for foodstuffs. MR SHEEAN: It’s a question of how to get the right things to the right places?

Other Nations Worse Off MINISTER OF FOOD: And of producing enough of them. MR SHEEAN: Do you think there’s anything impossible about nations continuing to exchange their characteristic products; for example, Britain continuing to exchange its textiles, coal, machinery, etc., for food as it has done for well over 100 years now, because every dislocation of the international structure stops that free exchange. It’s rather interrupted now. It certainly was during the war.

Depends on Production MINISTER OF FOOD: Well, I wouldn’t say that international trade is interrupted. There just is not enough food in the world at the moment to satisfy the primary needs of the whole population. That is mainly a question of war disruption in two great areas—western Europe and south-east Asia.

MR SHEEAN: The thing that bothers me about this whole question of the historical predicament about food is whether or not the British Isles can keep .the standard of living in food under present conditions. MINISTER OF FOOD: Why. yes, I am completely confident about that in the long run. I do not believe that anything hag happened in the world which makes it more difficult for us to obtain that ample supply of food and raw materials which we can have by means of selling our manufactured goods abroad.

The terms of trade, as they are called—that is to say, the amount of food and raw materials we get for any given quantity of exports—may. of course, vary. At. the moment they are not so favourable as they were in, for instance, the late 1930’5, but they are still considerably more favourable than they were in 1914, for instance. My own guess is that they will be relatively unfavourable as compared with the 1930’s for some years to come, but will then become decidedly favourable again. All that depends, of course, on the rate at. which the production of foodstuffs and other primary products increases in the world as a whole.

MR SHEEAN: I’m sure that’s true. But thinking back to July 10, when Molotov walked out of the conference, isn’t there bound to be some reluctance on the part of Russia and the States around them to negotiate? MINISTER OF FOOD: I repeat, it would disturb our standard of living if we could obtain no foodstuffs or raw materials from eastern Europe, but as I say, I believe that mainly by a series of trade pacts we can exchange our products with the countries of eastern Europe. The main thing preventing

that now is that these countries have as yet got very little food to sell. We shall not get much food out of them for a year or two until they have themselves produced food surpluses. MR SHEEAN: They have had a very bad summer? MINISTER OF FOOD: They have had a good summer. The Czechs have been unlucky, but Jugoslavia has had a good harvest; Hungary fairly good; Rumania very good; Russia very good; Poland moderate. The further west you go in Europe the worse the harvest has been —worst of all in France. MR SHEEAN: To come down from that much larger aspect of the question, I would like to ask you about the actual food and its distribution. I’m told that the bacon ration has been cut to one ounce a week, for instance. _ _ MINISTER OF FOOD: That is one of the most serious cuts that we have had to make, and we have had to make that entirely for lack of dollars. MR SHEEAN: I suppose you have studies of the relation between food and production. I believe the Department of Agriculture has a graph of the daily food ration of the miners in the Ruhr and next to it a graph of the daily production of coal in the Ruhr, with a remarkable correspondence between the food and production of coal. MINISTER OF FOOD: I can well believe that. And I believe that the rate at which we can step up our production of coal, steel, and production generally will depend in the new year very largely on whether we are enabled to Buy additional supplies of foodstuffs. And I am afraid that many—though not all—of these additional supplies must come from the dollar area, because that is the onlv place in which there are any additional supplies. Mine Recruitment Good MR SHEEAN: That's mainly wheat and protein foods? MINISTER OF FOOD: We do draw the biggest part of our wheat supply from Canada, which is in the dollar area. But the additional foodstuffs which I have in mind are, as you say, largely protein foods, i.e., bacon, eggs, meat, cheese, etc. MR SHEEAN: Do you intend or have you Peen thinking of a greater differentiation of rations? MINISTER OF FOOD: We have, of course, very carefully considered It, but I do not think myself that there is anything to be gained by it. MR SHEEAN: But the main problem with coal is to get the boys to go into the mines, isn’t it? The young fellows who have been in the Army and Navy wouldn’t be very keep, would they? MINISTER OF FOOD: As a matter of fact, the recruitment into the mines is quite good at the moment. MR SHEEAN: I would like to ask you now whether you have trouble with the black market in your Ministry. Does it interfere with the operation* of the food rationing system? Discounts Black Market MINISTER OF FOOD: We believe that the black market here is smaller, and always has been smaller than the black market in any, other country under rationing. But of course there are black market offences, and we have an important enforcement branch which deals with them. There are always prosecutions going on against people who have Committed offences. MR SHEEAN: Actually, then, the operation of the rationing system is not substantially interfered wiHh? MINISTER OF FOOD: I think it Is fair to say that it is not. MR SHEEAN: The other question which I want to ask you about is health. I have heard stories—we are hearing them in America all the time —about strange new diseases that are appearing as a result of malnutrition, prolonged rationing, and so forth. MINISTER OF FOOD: There are no such strange new diseases. So far the vital statistics have been extremely good. But I re-emphasise that word “so far” because, as I have said before, unless we are able to do better on food in the flust half of next year than looks {irobable at the moment. I don’t beieve that these favourable statistics will continue. But so far'all of the indices have been favourable. For instance. we have interesting statistics of the height of school children at different ages. Surveys have been taken before the war and since of their heights and weights, so that we can compare children of the same age at the same schools over a 10-year interval. In 1932 the working-class boys aged 13J years in the London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow primary schools were on the average 58 inches in height and some 881 b in weight. In 1944 they were on the average about an inch taller and 41b heavier. Up till now their conditions have not varied significantly since then. Infant Mortality Down MR SHEEAN: How about skins and teeth, and so on. Are there no signs of deterioration? MINISTER OF FOOD: AH those figures are improving very noticeably. what you would expect because, for instance, the population as a whole is drinking one and a half times as much milk as it was drinking before the war. Again the Infant mortality rates are interesting. In 1938 for the country as a whole they were 59 for 1000 live births. In 1945 they were 46 for 1000. But in some places the difference is far greater. I represent in Parliament the big industrial Scottish city of Dundee. Dundee had terrible unemployment before the war. and the infant mortality rate in 1931 was 92 for 1000. In 1946 it was 47 for 1000. And the explanation isn’t far to seek. In 1931 Dundee had 24,500 unemployed. To-day it has 2100 unemployed. On health generally the tuberculosis rate is usually considered a fair index. The total deaths from respiratory tuberculosis were in 1931 28,740; in 1938, 21.282; and in 1945, 20,013. MR SHEEAN: Well, I am sure you are right. But. at the same time the feat accomplished in the distribution system is terrific. MINISTER OF FOOD: I do believe that the British rationing system, which I didn’t devise, but which was built up by the Ministry of Food under a succession of Ministers, is a magnificent achievement of which Britain has the right to be very proud. MR SHEEAN: I’m quite sure it’f the only successful one in the world.