A NATION ON RATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 19199, 16 March 1926, Page 8

A NATION ON RATIONS

BRITAIN Hi WAR TIME A GREAT UKBEBTAKIKG It is not generally realised in the dominion that for over three years the people of Great Britain were rationed as regards the chief articles of food, owing, firstly, to the shortage caused by the “intensive” campaign carried out by German submarines in sinking merchant ships, and subsequently _ by the world shortage caused by the withdrawal of millions of men from productive pursuits in order to serve in the war. It was not until more than ■two years after the outbreak of war that the British Ministry of Food began to consider seriously the question of rationing supplies. For some time before it had virtually taken over control of the country’s food, by purchasing supplies abroad, shipping them to great Britain, and distributing them through the ordinary trade channels. Compulsory rationing of the nation was delayed as long as possible, because it was felt in official circles that its institution would bo regarded by Germany and the outside world as proof of the approaching triumph of _ the German threat to starve Great Britain into surrender by means of the submarine warfare. Compulsory rationing bad been adopted in Germany and Austria long before, as the naval blockade maintained bv the Allies cut off these countries from most of the foreign sources of food supplies. The first notable step in the direction of rationing in Great Britain was an announcement by the Ministry of Food in March, 1917, regarding the shortage, and placing the nation on its honor to limit the purchases of the three principal foods to the following weekly amounts per head: —Broad, _4lb; meat, 2Mb; sugar, Jib. _ Extensive propaganda in food saving was conducted throughout the country by 1,200 food campaign committees, and 5,000,000 leaflets on the subject were distributed. On four consecutive Sundays a Royal proclamation was read in the churches of all denominations exhorting

l-ho people to practise frngalily and economy. Previously steps had been taken by the Ministry of Pood to restrict tiio consumption of sugar, to dilute flour by the addition of 5 to 10 per cent, of barley, riven and maize, and to restrict the brewing of beer, which involved the use of largo quantities'of barley and .sugar. The sale of new bread and the icing of cakes wore among the many minor prohibitions enforced by the Ministry. But by the beginning of IGIS the Ministry was forced to resort to the compulsory rationing of tea, sugar, broad, meat, butter, and otbey iais. Owing to the shortage of supplies of these foods largo queues were in the habit of forming each day outside the shops in the chief cities. As tiro shops were never able to servo all the people in these queues there was widespread discontent. The Government feared that trouble would bo caused among the men serving in the Army in Prance if they learned that their wives and children were unable to obtain food at the shops. National rationing was therefore instituted, and was canned out ivith remarkable smoothness. For most of these foods each person_ or family had to register with a particular tradesman, and the latter obtained supplies in accordance with the number of his registered customers. Perforated sheets of tickets like postage stamps were issued by the Ministry to each person in the kingdom, and these tickets were handed over to the Iradosmen ns purchases were made. The amount of each rationed food each person was entitled to varied a little from time, to time, hut for a long period tiio weekly rations were:—4l n bread, loz butter, 4oz margarine, 2oz lard, 4oz jam, fioz sugar, 2oz bacon, 2oz cheese, Is 3d worth of meat. Some of these foods, such as butter, cheese, and jam, were not always procurable, and there was often a complete absence of other foods that were not rationed, such as potatoes, dried fruits, and honey. For a long period matches were almost unobtainable, and many housewives had to keep a gas jet alight all day in order to light the gas oven when it was required. The story of the colossal work carried

out by the Ministry of Food is told in ‘ A State Trading Adventure,’ by Frank H. Coder, who was the secretary of the Ministry. When _ rationing ended in 1921, and the official control of food supplies ceased, the Ministry bad to get rid of vast stores that were on hand. The aggregate turnover of the Ministry in the purchase of lo°d exceeded £i ,400,000. Its aim was to make neither a profit nor_ a loss, but inevitably there wore profits on some purchases and losses on others. For instance, the Ministry’s total purchases of frozen meat amounted to £206,526,849, on which a profit of £5,663,•'559 was made, but tbo purchase of £24.6,680,627 worth of bacon, hams, and lard resulted in a loss of £2,183.067. Tea purchases totalled £23,813,444, and yielded a profit of £2.101,435, but there was'a loss of £1,9-15,845 on the purchase of £123.004,568 worth of butter and cheese. The net profit on the total turnover reached £7,350,000. which works out at a little more than onehalf of 1 per cent. “ ft is not. suggested that the experiment could he repeated in normal times with equally satisfactory results.” states Mr Coller. ‘‘The paradox of food control is that it secures at once the encouragement of the producer and the comfort of the distributor; the consumer is loft to crave for subsidies, inevitably less abundant as the taxpayer disappears. Control, moreover, is apt to ignore quality, and on the emergence of quality civi.isation probably depends. But the real objection to State trading _is its extreme susceptibility to political pressure.”