FOOD RATIONING

Grey River Argus, 28 February 1944, Page 2

FOOD RATIONING

POSITION IN BRITAIN [Per Press Association] WELLINGTON, Feb. 27. Sir H. Batterbee, British High Commissioner in New Zealand, in a broadcast to-night said: Air Commodore Nevill and others have spoken to you about rationing in Britain. I would like to thank them for what they have said as to the way in which the British people have borne rationing and all the other sacrifices, inconveniences, and discomforts due to the war. I assume you that the food is wanted over there. You all know

how small the rations are in Britain and that nearly everything is rationed, but it will not. be possible to maintain even the present rations unless New Zealand and Australia can keep up supplies. If supplies fail, then either civilian rations or the rations of the fighting services must be cut. The scale of civilian rations has been scientifically devised to provide just sufficient and only sufficient sustenance to maintain the health and vitality of the people. Indeed, so carefully has the scale been calculated and so successfully have the available foodstuffs been distributed, that, surprising though it may seem, the health, authorities tell us that the general health of the population of the British Isles has never been better. The grown-ups may look a little thin and tired, but people who have visited Britain say that they have never seen finer or healthier looking babies and children. But, if the present scale of rations is reduced, then the effect on the nation’s health cannot but be most injurious. Even though there’s enough food for health, don’t suppose that there is anything like as much as people want. As a woman out from home said the other day, “You may be fit, / but you’re hungry all the same. 1 Every night when you go to bed there’s an empty feeling; you’d love a bit of cake or a discuit or two; but as there isn’t any cake, and biscuits are rationed, well, you just have to go to bed.” The people of Britain don’t' like these small rations —of course, they don’t—but they are not grumbling. Rationing is one of the civilian’s contributions to winning the war, and cheerfully .accepted as such. Moreover, the rations are universally regarded as fair; all, rich and m? or ’ h ave to share and share alike. The richest man in Britain cannot get more than 2 ozs. of butter per week. Indeed, the child of poof parents in the East End of London is sometimes able to obtain an orange which is quite unprocurable by the millionaire in the West End. Mothers and children have first call on the milk supplies, and the result is that the rest go very short. A letter which I have received recently says:— We are now to be strictly rationed in, milk. The winter ration in towns is to be only two pints each a. week, which means less than a pint a day for three people for eveiything ; but one really ought not to complain when one thinks what the people are going through in the occupied countries.” It is not only Britain that needs yom’ help, but the occupied countries of Europe as well. Indeed, now that 'v the invasion of Europe is near, how to feed the starving populations when we have liberated them has become a foremost problem. The answer of course, is that., if they are to be saved from starvation, we shall all have to cut our own consumption. In Britain they are beginning to build up stocks of food to rush tn Europe when the time comes. If I may give you an instance which may interest you, huge stocks of vitamiriised chocolate are being prepared to move in with the armies. Chocolate has been found the 'best repository of artificially introduced vitamins, and the people of Britain are giving up some of their supplies of sugar and milk—and the supplies of both ■are short epough—in order to produce this chocolate. There is .a limit; however, to the extent to which' Britain can tighten the belt further, and your help too is ; wanted in this work of mercy. What you save, here now may give a meal to a starving child

in Brussels, Warsaw, Athens or Paris in what we hone will be the near future.

If New Zealand is to export more food for Britain and Europe, there are only two ways by which it can be done: either by increasing production or limiting consumption. Every effort* is being made by the farmers . of New Zealand to produce food fo? export up to the maximum possible, and I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my appreciation. But with the shortage of labour, the deficiency of fertilisers and all- the other war-time difficulties, they cannot do more than maintain output so j far as they can: there is no prospect this season of any increased production; And so reduction of consumption is the only way to find the required supplied. That is why, if the supplies are to be found, rationing has become necessary. But some people . have said to me “What about the ships ? What is the use of our going without food if there is not the shipping to carry it ?” .1 can give an assurance that the shipping can be ' provided for every ton of meat and butter which New Zealand is prepared to export. A word about the farmers at home. Britain is making every effort to help herself. From being only 40 per cent, self-sufficient in food production before the war, she is now 70 per cent. Six million new acres have been brought under the plough: this means three acres under the plough for every two before. In spite of the great linci’ease in ploughland,, milk production has been considerably increased, and vegetable production has been about doubled. On the land, 1 as in everything else, the women have I been to the fore: the work of the , Women’s Land Army has been magnificent. I should like to read to you I an extract from a letter from a cou- ; sin of mine living in Sussex:— “Barbara is home, en route to another Land Girl’s job in Essex. These girls on the land are, I consider, the backbone of the nation nowadays. Thev have longer hours than anyone, very few holidays, small pay and not always very comfortable digs, and yet thev go bravely on, never shrinking. Barbara’s new job is from six a.m. to six p.m., with one half-day a week, a whole day only when convenient. Well, God bless them, they are real' bricks and worthy to be cab ed Englishwomen.” Please do not think what I have said about the development of food production in Britain that there will be no need for New Zealand primary produce after the war. On the contrary, as I see the position, there will be for several years to come the greatest need for all the food that New 1 Zealand is able to export. The cattle herds of Europe are depleted, the pigs are slaughtered, much of the farmland devastated and the equipment destroyed. It will take years to build up food production even to the low standard of before the war. and, as was shown at the Hot Springs conference, the United Nations are not going to be satisfied with thaL I see no reason why there should be any decline in the demand for the primary products for which New Zealand has built up so high a reputation