FOOD-RATIONS IN BRITAIN ARE FAIR-BUT DULL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22820, 15 December 1948, Page 5

FOOD-RATIONS IN BRITAIN ARE FAIR-BUT DULL

(From Ronald Maclurkin, Reuter Correspondent) LONDON (By Air Mail). Three years after the end of the Second World War the dream of every Briton is still a land where people can buy as many eggs as they want, eat as much meat as they can hold, and purchase bananas off any street fruit barrow. Britons—no gourmets but throughout generations of history fed well and solidly—see no prospect of food rationing ending for years to come.

Since the end of the war, they have grumbled more at the deadly dullness of their fare than at the meagre quantity of it and, near the end of 1948, the dullness is an even greyer shade than it was in 1945. The points system, under which each person is allotted 24 points with which to buy tinned foods and delicacies for some time saved the ration from unrelieved monotony. But for months now, many housewives have been unable’ to “spend” their points on such “relief” because the Government s drive to save hard currency has cut down imports of tinned foodstuffs. Former stand-bys such as tinned beans, steak and kidney puddings and dried eggs are not easy to get nowadays. Almost al lthat can be obtained with points are cheeses, tinned soups and spaghetti. Several new varieties of canned fish have recently been offered on points, but have failed to arouse enthusiasm. Snoek —a South African fish known to few but ocean biologists until a few months ago—is being imported in considerbale quantities but many housewives will not buy it, finding it an unsatisfactory substitute for tinned salmon. “Shockingly Meagre” Tire basic ration per person looks shockingly meagre when put out on a plate. This, with variations in the type of meat, goes to feed one person for a whole week: two lamb chops, two rashers of bacon, one shell egg, four ounces of margarine, three ounces ot butter, one ounce of cooking fat, one small slice of cheese, two ounces of tea and half a pound of sugar. Potatoes are now off the ration and vegetables are plentiful, though much more expensive than before the war. Fish is unrationed and abundant. The one virtue of the food situation is that rationing is probably fairer than in any other food-controlled country in the world today. The same amount of rationed food goes to the humblest working class home as to the richest mansion. , , . ~ Most families expend their rations in one grand spree at week-ends, leaving the rest of the week to take care of itself—or rather, leaving the harassed woman of the family to take care of it. This, for her, means queuing for offration articles which may be sold out by the time her turn comes. Fish, sausages and offal, such as liver, are the mainstay of mid-week meals but the sausages and offal are not always easy to get and many butchers have adopted unofficial rationing systems of their own to share supplies among their customers. 25/- For a Chicken Poultry, which is not rationed, is beyond the purses of the average family. A chicken large enough to provide one meal for four people costs twenty-five shillings and over. _ Maw Britons have adopted the “eating-out habit to ease food difficulties at home. Restaurants are enjoying a boom which is likely to remain until the days of food shortage are over. Public caterers on a larger scale, face the same problems of shortages as the housewife. Menus are made to sound as attractice as possible; but the customer usually finds that the “roast beef and two vegetables” so prominently featured has spread to only a few early diners. The choice remaining is unappetising and monotonous —“cutlet” which is a hash of breadcrumbs and left-over ends of meat minced up; or “hamburger’ which is more or less the same. Some small restaurants, however, amaze the layman by being able to provide an apparently limitless diet of steak. There are two reasons for this. During the war, when food rationing started, restaurateurs were asked to detail the amount of food consumed normally. This formed the basis of their future allotment. Many, gambling on increasing their custom, submitted a figure far above their real needs and got away with it. The other source of steak is—horsemeat. By law, restaurateurs must display a notice telling the public if they serve horsemeat. Many tuck the notice in a dark corner and cut off the tell-tale yellow fat from the meat. The bigger, select restaurants get over the food shortage by serving poultry, lobster or other luxury foods. Nevertheless, many of the famous London restaurants which used to attract the most hyper-critical gourmets have lost their reputation since the war. Restaurants’ “House Charges' Restaurants, whether big or small, elegant or tucked away in a back street, are allowed to serve only three main courses —and must not charge more than 5/- for them. The expensive restaurants, to cover additional overhead charges, are allowed to make a fixed, officially authorised “house charge," which ranges from 2/6 to 7/6, according to the category of the establishment. An extra charge of from 2/6 to 7/6 may be made for music and dancing. Government control of food has brought a vast army of 50,000 civil servants into being. Regional food offices throughout the country administer the many forms, books and coupons which must be filled and filed before an indi-

vidual can approach his butcher or grocer or milkman. At the head of this' army, filling the Government's most unpopular and assailable job, is 47-year-old Evelyn John Saint Leo Strachey, one of the “intellectuals” of the Labour Party. Since he took over the job, Oxfordeducated Strachey has discovered that facing irate housewives is a different proposition from theorising on politics in the many scholarly books he has written. He is heckled and boo-ed by women at almost every meeting he addresses; newspapers have attacked him bitterly for showing a loss on the Government’s bulk purchasing of food from abroad, and for refusing to reveal such statistics as the nation’s stocks of sugar. Subsidies on Food Conservatives also berate him for the Government's subsidies on food which cost the country £470,000,000 a year. His answer is simple—the cost of food to the housewife would soar if they were abolished. Tea alone would go up by amout tenpence half-penny a pound (weight). As Christmas, traditional season of good eating, approaches, the Minister of Food has been besieged by caterers for permission to increase their prices; by the public asking for extra luxuries. He has been unable to promise much. There will be fewer turkeys, a decrease in the bacon ration, but nuts will be more • plentiful, jam will be off the ration.

Every week, the Government publishes advertisements in the national newspapers giving the latest food news, listing recipes to help the housewife make her meagre fare more satisfying, more attractive. An eager public digests this information hungrily. Food is big news in Britain today.