GERMANY'S FOOD PROBLEM

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 31 March 1915, Page 8

GERMANY'S FOOD PROBLEM

Germany's food problem :s discussed at great length by the Berliner Tageblatt and the Tagliche Rundschau. The former plumps for a menu of salt fish, pickled meat, bread and cheese, and no butter, and says

"Think of the sacrifice made by our dear glorious soldiers, and begin to wage the economic war of defence tenaciously. The whole nation must learn to eat intelligently, from the highest to the lowest in the land. Even he who can pay for it should not use more than is necessary. Help, ye hotelkeepers and bakers —help, ye' German housewives a million times over! From now on begins the period of inlternal change in the kitchen. The kitchen saves the Fatherland. It may be hard on German stomachs^ and harder still on German palates, which so deai-ly love good things. But still, bitter though the pill may be, we must swallow it. WE MUST EAT LESS!"

The Rundschau opens its columns to a sermon by Generalsecretar Rich Kunze, who lectures people and Government alike in the following terms: "This terrible war can only be brought to a happy ending if we are able to feed ourselves throughout its duration, and our food supplies will suffice, but only if we exercise the greatest economy in every direction. This necessity, however, must not be any longer dependent on the goodwill of the individual. There is too much at stake for this. As far as wheat supplies are concerned, the authorities have .already taken certain steps, but the use of present supplies may under no circumstances be left to the inclination of the individual. The newly-formed Cereals Company, Ltd., is really only an inefficient substitute for a broad State organisation. Thrqugh the advanced prices which are proposed £10,000,000 "will be taken out of the poclcets of the German people and transferred into speculators' hands. The regulations enforcing the admixture of rye or potato flour with wheat flour should have been more strict. These iron 'times require men of iron. We can have no consideration for effeminacy and personal convenience."