BRITISH FOOD SUPPLIES

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17328, 17 November 1916, Page 4

BRITISH FOOD SUPPLIES

Thh Imperial Government has moved cautiously in the matter of controlling food supplies and prices, contenting itself, for the most part, with watching the markets and intervening only when there seemed likely to be a shortage, but it has done a great deal of work without advertising its , activities and its silence has been deceptive. However Mr Runciman has now outlined a more comprehensive and more drastic policy of control. Full use is to be mado of the powers already possessed by tho Board of Trade, and a special controlling officer is to bo appointed immediately to take charge of tho work. If tho existing powers are insufficient extensions will be sought from Parliament. Extravagance and wastage arc to be curtailed, the use of luxuries discouraged and real economies are to bo instituted tinder State direction. Air Runciman declared that bo would resort to the food ticket device if waste and exploitation could not bo prevented by other means, n statement that may perhaps alarm somo of the publicists who huvo hitherto regarded the German system of control as proof of the enemy's desperate condition. Britain, of course, is not threatened with tho institution of war bread, but already the Government has decided to prohibit the manufacture of the fashionable white flour, which is an extravagant article and which, according to the exports, is less nutritious than the socalled whole-wheat flour. Why the Government should have delayed so long in taking complete control of the food supplies is dißicult 10 understand. In earlier speeches Mr Runciman has expressed an unwillingness i# interfere with private enterprise, at any rate so long as private enterprise could supply the needs of tho nation. He bought the Australian wheat surplus because the private traders were not maintaining sufficient stocks, and in the very early days of the war, of course, the Government took over the sugar business because the traders could not have coped with the demand at reasonable prices, but these examples of effective State action do not seem to have inspired it, with a desire to handle all foodstuffs. Indeed, in many respects the control has been exercised unwillingly and with hesitation, notably in tho matter of meatj as New Zealand producers have reason to know. Even now its policy is rather one of waruing than of comprehensive action, and probably Mr Runciman would not,have been moved to make his statement on tho subject if it hod riot been for the of a group of members of Parliament, with, possibly, the added stimulus of a threatened extension of the enemy's war on merchant shipping.