FAMINE IN EUROPE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 219, 14 August 1940, Page 7

FAMINE IN EUROPE.

BRITAIN NOT RESPONSIBLE. LONDON, Aug. 13. The Daily Express says Britain has not received a communication about sending food to the “starving populations” in Europe, but if she does her answer will be in the negative. The German Minister of Economics (Dr. Funk) declared there was no shortage of food in Germany and that the British blockade was a complete failure. If, therefore, the occupied territories were short of food the Germans must be keeping it from them or the distribution must be faulty. Even if the distribution were supervised by neutrals to ensure that the food was not. confiscated by Germany, tlris would release for Germany’s war purposes an equivalent amount front the German stores. Consequently, Britain could not consent to a course which would bo to the general disadvantage because it would prolong the war. The question is being argued on both sides in the United States. Mr. H. Hoover, the former President, declared last night that prompt action is necessary to prevent wholesale starvation On the other hand, the New York ' Herakl-Tribune points out that Germany is trying to exploit humanitarian feelings in America in the hope of weakening the British blockade. The newspaper says that Goebbels’s' men , have not an easy task, for they are in the embarrassing position of having to prove how successfully Nazi Germany sis dealing with the situation while at the same time playing up tlie sufferings of tlie victim peoples. If Germany’s irqn rule . imposes suffering, it will not he America’s fault; it will bo tlie fault of those who loosed the war upon the world.