Rationing in Austria

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 173, 25 July 1939, Page 3

Rationing in Austria

BUTTER AND BACON CARDS Butter, kacou and lard arc now being rationed in Austria. Every head of a household has to fill in two forms mentioning the number of. persons for whose maintenance ho is responsible. Single persons who take their meals at home have to state their names. The correctness of the statements has to be ofticialy confirmed, and then the consumers’ names are entered in the retailers’ lists. Every consumer has two retailers—a dairyman or greengrocer who sells him butter and a butcher from whom he buys bacon, lar d and tallow. Oils and vegetable fats are exempted from rationing. Special provision is made for hotels, restaurants and boarding houses. The official explanations in the papers say that tho rationing measures do not necessarily mean a shortening of the present consumption. The authorities wish to get a survey of the quantities needed, and to prevent a rise in prices when stocks are scarce. The papers do not say how much butter, bacon and so on the individual Austrian will get iu future, but it is assumed that the rations will be based on the consumption figures for 1938. Hitherto Austria has been better supplied with food than most other German territories. Before she .joined Germany she even exported butter. Germany has been divided into lour butter-supply regions, of which Austria is one, and as it is forbidden to sell butter from one region into another the Austrians have a reasonable chaiice of getting what they are accustomed to.