BRITAIN’S SUPPLIES

Grey River Argus, 20 March 1942, Page 1

BRITAIN’S SUPPLIES

COAL AND CLOTHES RATIONING

HOME FOOD PRODUCTION.

LONDON. March‘lS

The “Daily Express” says that changes in the coal mining industry, at which Dr. Hugh Dalton, President of the Board of Trade, hinted in the House of Commons, are believed to include national control for the duration of the war, Clothing in Britan is to be rationed still further. There wiF b” the equivalent of a 25 per cent, cut in the ration, which will be reduced from the rate of 66 coupons a year to slightly more than 40. Sixty coupons will be issued to cover a period of 14 months. Only the first 20 -will be available between June 1, when the nc-w rationing starts, and October 10. The remaining 40 and any balance of the first 20 have to last until end of July next year. Coupons on the current card do not expire on Ma v 31, but rema’n valid until October 10 The House of Commons debated agriculture. The Minister of Agriculture gave an impressive account of the steps he had taken to expand production of foodstuffs in the United Kingdom. The harvest of 1942 might well be a critical factor in the future history, not only of Britain, but of the world. At the end of this ploughing season, Britain would have nearly six million more acres under the plough than before the war. The wheat acreage had increased over last year by one-third. Before the war a great deal of wheat went to feeding livestock. Now it practically all went for human consumntion. The potato acreage, too, had increased bv over half over prewar figures. The production of vegetables and oats had risen between 1938 and 1941, from two and a-half million tons to nearly four million tons. Both the cereal and potato harvests in Continental Europe had declined between 1940 and 1941. Britain was probably the most highly mechanised farming country in Europe to-day. The time had come, however, to demand higher standards st''li. * The second-class farmer must become first class, and those who could not raise their standards would either have to give up or be subjected to very c'ose supervision. Male labour and skilled labour would be short for farming, and farmers world have to redouble. Iheir efforts to absorb unskilled labour. The women’s land army was growing fast, and was now' past the 25,000 mark.