FOOD FOR BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 87, 13 April 1944, Page 6

FOOD FOR BRITAIN

SUPPLIES DECLINE

MAINTENANCE ESSENTIAL

The serious effect of declining production in countries- exporting food to Great Britain was stressed by Mr. W. Bankes Amety, leader of the United Kingdom Food Mission, in a luncheon address to the United Kingdom Manufacturers' and New Zealand Importers' Association today.

Britain, he said, could possibly stand reductions in any onS country, but when supplies from all were falling as rapidly as at present, the outlook was serious, particularly as nutrition experts in Britain all emphasised that the health, physique, and morale of the people could not be sustained after five winters of rationing if supplies of meat or dairy produce were reduced. "I feel sure that once the producers and consumers of New Zealand realise how the maintenance of the meat and butter ration depends on increased exports from this country as well as from Australia, beyond recent low levels, every possible effort wilL be made to ensure an all-round improvement," he added. Mr. Amery said in the course of his tour of New Zealand, he derived the impression that some people imagined that Great Britain was asking for more and more foodstuffs. This was far from being the case. Britain would, indeed, be satisfied if her imports of foodstuffs from New Zealand could approximate those which she received from this country and other countries at the outbreak of war. "The plain fact, from which there -is no escape," he continued, "is that whereas Britain has a greater population to feed (after making allowance for the Armed Forces) than she had prior to the war, the food with which she has to feed them is depleted, not only by the enemy occupation of Denmark and Holland, but also by the heavy reduction in ' supplies now available in countries such as New Zealand and Australia. POSITION REVERSED. "At one stage, when ships were urgently needed for the conveyance of troops and war supplies round the Cape of Good Hope, more food was available than there were ships to take it. This year the position is reversed, and there is definitely more shipping space available than food to fill that space. The future of the food supplies for 47,000,000 people, plus, soldiers, in the United Kingdom, is therefore one of increasing. anxiety." The speaker referred to the stimulus given to reciprocal trade between Britain and her Dominions by. the Ottawa Agreement, and said that under this stimulus Britain, at the outbreak of war, imported two-thirds of her food requirements. It was entirely due to the efforts of her sailors in defeating the enemy blockade that she ■ had not succumbed to the' attempt to deprive her of the necessities of life. Britain's dependence on shipping for imports had;... been- reduced now from two-thirds to onethird, owing to the reorganisation that had taken place in agriculture at Home. Last summer they had the largest harvest on record, amounting to 100,000,000 tons of produce of various kinds, including cereals, fcota__ toes, and forage and root crops. A Mr. Amery said that the domestic ration at Home was by far the lowest in any English-speaking country. For instance, the individual was allowed ls 2d worth of meat (which bought on the average lib of meat), 4oz of bacon, 2oz of butter, 4oz of margarine, 2oz of cooking fat, 2oz of cheese, Boz of sugar, and 2oz of tea. In addition to these prescribed rations, there was a distribution of shell eggs equal to one egg per person in the summer per week, and in the winter one per month. Milk was distributed on a priority to mothers and children, and other members of the population received no more than four pints weekly in the summer and two pints in the winter. The only unrationed goods of any importance were bread and potatoes, which were available without stint. The bread, however, was made from brown flour, diluted by homegrown oats, barley, and rye.