EMPIRE FOOD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 22

EMPIRE FOOD

AN ASPECT OF MIGRATION

WOMAN'S VIEWPOINT

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON. 4th October.

In a letter to "The Times," Mrs. Ettio A. Hornibrook makes some suggestions for tho encouragement of the consumption of British produce.

"As a New Zealander," she says, "1 know that tliat country could easily support five times its present population; nevertheless, the New Zealand Government must, discourage immigration, mainly because of the present inadequate provision for marketing the produce of a five-fold population. Migration schemes do not fail because of the alleged decline in spirit, enterprise, courage, indopendonce, am} so forth among the Homeland folk, migration fails because it has ceased to be a great adventuro and become a sickening risk. If land settlement is such an easy and profitable affair why do not the ovei-crowded populations of Melbourne and Sydney (about one-third of the.Australians) engage in it? They do not because Australian men know that the marketing facilities are inadequate, and Australian women know that country, life means keeping house without any regular income. In the early days of New Zealand successful colonists were engaged on public works for several days a week; they exchanged part, of their labour power fox money wages which maintained their wives and. children. Now the "wireless" tends to displace the telegraph line, and the motor lorry and the aarqplane tend to displace the railway, aiwl there is. relatively little regular employment on public works available for new settlers. The settlers mus.t be setfrsupporting from .the start; and without pdequate marketing facilities this is impossible. -■ -

c'The Empire Marketing*. Board wa.s fpiDided .on the, fact that consumption and cultivation are indlssolubly. linked, and the recipes the board issues make an immediate appeal to every responsible British woman, But every family uses so much roady^toreat food and so much ready-to-wear clothing that home-cooking and home-sawing directions, are not so important as. they were in medieval times, and, unfortunately the British business houses whicih pack and prepare our foods are often obliged to : use, foreign material because of the uncertainty and insuffieienicy of British Empire supplies. At present the Empire does not 'deliver the goods, 5 and the foreign country does, As an example, take soa, which would perfectly well be grown in the Empire, and yet Great ,Britain spend? about 2i millions sterling per annum in purchasing soya from foreigners. Anpthier glaring example is maize. VOLUNTAEY PREFERENCE. "Ast you wisely say voluntary preference for Empire foods is all that is practicable. To secure this voluntary preference, would it not be useful to. establish. Empire food market? Exhibittionß are all very well, but we want permanent free food markets for pur British produce, where the people can buy Empire foods only, and eat them in suitable restaurants, and obtain information for home uses. The overseas Governments would, naturally be interested to support such Empire food mart kets, and different large stores and trading organisations here might act as their agents. The Empire Tood Mai> kets shffuld be immensely valuable in establisliing direct connection between the English grower and the English consumer, especially as regards fresh fruits an,d vegetables so, needlessly imported froni Europe.

''Mainly, however, in the matter of Empire development would Empire Food Markets function most beneficially. Thery could receive and sell the whola of the produce of new settlements. Where there was a. temporary glut, food preservation might solve the problem (old potatoes can be turned into a wholesome flour, onions can be dried for use in. soups, and so on), or consumption can be stimulated through the Press, as in wartime. An immediate need flor stimulating consumption exists in. Empire cocoa, of which firsts class food (when properly prepared) pur warehouses are now filled to overflowing. The Empire ■ markets would intro^ duee the scientist- and. dietist to the housekeeper; at present the scientists know very little about housekeeping, and the housekeepers' know less about science. But we all want to know what is good to eat, and why, and we all want, to 1 earn that, though some fresh fruit and fresh Jeafy vegetables are necessary, ordered civilisation and human health are based on the art a.nd practice of food preparation and food preservation, and the stability of the British Empire at present certainly demands that we should grow pur food and eat it."

Miss F. A. Underwood (of the Women's Freedqm League) supports Mrs. Hornibrook's statement. "l could not help feeling the keenest re, gret," she writes in a letter to "The Times," "that there are ho women on the Empire Marketing Board. This board consists of.Lord Passfield, the Secretary of State fdr Dominion Affairs, and 18 other distinguished gentlemen belonging to. this country or to the Dominions. Its declared policy is to <in^ vite the publicHo buy first the produce pf their own country, and next the produce pf the other parts of the Empire. '■ The question of the purchase of foodstuffs is one which pre-eminently concerivs women, and surely throughout the British Empire "women could be found whose brains, special knowledge, and experience of this matter would be of invaluable assistance to the Empire Marketing Board.? 1