Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JULY 13, 1936. FOOD SUPPLIES AND WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 190, 13 July 1936, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JULY 13, 1936. FOOD SUPPLIES AND WAR.

It was announced in the House of Commons, early in May, that a sub-committee had been appointed to make “the necessary arrangements for the food supply of the civilian population in time of war,” and as New Zealand provides a considerable proportion of the food supplies consumed by Britain the matter is of considerable interest to us. Among the interesting points brought out in the figures given in the Agricultural Register 1935-36, published by the Agricultural Economic Research Institute, Oxford, is the degree of Britain’s dependence upon countries which arc a considerable distance from the United Kingdom and supplies from which may well be subject to serious interruption by enemy action. The protection of merchant shipping must therefore loom large in any scheme of British defence, but whatever measures may be taken to police the trade routes, Britain would have to depend during a war upon neutral countries in close proximity to England for a much larger proportion than usual of imported food supplies. Friendly relations with those countries obviously become a matter of vital importance, and this is a phase of the problem that New Zealand and Australia should not overlook. Britain cannot safely penalise Denmark and the Baltic and Scandinavian States for the benefit of the Dominions. A year or two years ago, such a proposal would have been considered untimely, but now that the possibility of war looms upon the European horizon, it is a serious topic.

Germany is the principal disturbing factor in Europe, and, since her experience of the Great War in respect of food supplies was tragic, she has no doubt considered the subject, and made her preparations. During the Great War Germany’s imports were reduced to vanishing point, and its home production was severely curtailed, as a result of a lack of fertilisers, and more particularly by the conscription of men and horses for war service. Bread rationing was introduced in January, 1915, fodder grains were shortly after brought under control, and gradually other foodstuffs were similarly dealt with. Before the end of the war all foodstuffs for man and beast, with unimportant exceptions, were controlled. Among other measures a wholesale slaughtering of pigs was carried out, with a view to saving for human consumption the potatoes and grain required for their fattening. With dwindling supplies rations were rapidly reduced to a bare minimum, the weekly fat ration in 1916-18 being on an average only about 2ioz each month with a conipletely meatless week, while milk was received only by children, expectant mothers and invalids.