EAT SNAILS!

Mataura Ensign, 2 November 1911, Page 5

EAT SNAILS!

Legend declares that when the revolutionary mob filled into the streets of Paris demanding bread Marie Antoinette had the happy thought to suggestthat if they could not get bread enough they should try cake. The 'Westminster Gazette,' leading exponent of Free Trade, had the inspiration last night to tell those poor English people who are suffering from scarcity of food that they might eat frogs audi snails (states the 'Daily Mail' of September 9). The passage is as follows: One aspect of the food question—which is leading to violent protests —has been neglected, and that is the food itself. Every nation whioh claims to be civilised wastes food which might go to its support, from America which will not eat goose to Germany which will not eat rabbit and England which will not eat either frogs or snails. That is merely a hint of the waste that is engendered by local prejudices. And perhaps the most wasteful of all is the English housewife who despises the soup of the Frenchwoman and gives to the d!ust-bin what should be cherished in the pot-au-feu. Even bread S is not a necessity, since millions live on rice as the substitute. In fact, there is enough food in the world for everyone, if everyone would accept and use the gifts of Nature. Our information is that there is a sad scarcity even of snails owing to the dry summer both in France and England which may delay this interesting experiment. In any case we understand that the edible French snail is fed on vine leaves and' is an entirely different species from our ugly E glish snail, which has never been suggested as food until the merry thought occurred to the 'Westminster Gazette.'