Food Problem In Europe

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 18 November 1940, Page 7

Food Problem In Europe

WINTER OUTLOOK

With the rapid approach of winter the question of food supplies for the hungry millions in Europe assumes a growing importance. it can be sairl that there need be no starvation, even in a Europe cut off from overseas supplits; but there is evidence of severe shortage. There is every likelihood that Europe is facing a winter of terrible privation. Stringent rationing is already in force in Norway, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. Further? rationing is about to be introduced in unoccupied France. However, obviously there need he no famine, the danger of famine is there. Britain’s Blockade

The British blockade lias been in operation for I t months, but for more than six months it did not interfere ■with the How of foodstuffs into Norway and the Low Countries. Not (ill these small States were transferred from the protection of their own neutrality to the “protection” o*f the Reich did any danger of shortage arise. Where neutrality is still operative, ns in Portugal, or even where a semblance of it remains, as in Spain, the blockade does not interfere with supplies of food. Clearly, therefore, remarks the “Economist,” it is no action of Great Britain, but rather Germany’s violation of these various States’ neutrality which has led to the present situation. The Nazis must take full moral responsibility for cutting off the peoples they have conquered from the sources of world supply; and, at the same time, they must fulfil the obligation, fully recognized in international law, of securing the well-being of the territories they have occupied. The obligation should be specially binding upon them since, in almost every case, they professed to come, not as invaders, but as “protectors.” Could Hitler feed his subject peoples? The problem is pre-eminently one of distribution. Balkan surpluses—where they exist —could be bought up and transferred to the needy west. Russia’s help could be enlisted; Germany bought more than a million tons of maize last winter from the Soviets. Then there are the German reserves of grain and the German nation's “iron ration” of tinned foodstuffs. Another immediately available source would be the large stocks reserved for use in the armament industry. It is estimated that the Nazis are using a million tons of potatoes iu the production of fuel alcohol; milk is used for casein; and the chronic shortage of fats in Germany is largely due to the amounts swallowed up in the production of glycerine and nitro-glycerine. Nazi Plundering

But there is evidence that the Nazi policy in the occupied countries has been that of plunder and loot. Holland lost DO per cent, of her butter reserves in one week. Denmark’s pigs and poultry are being compulsorily slaughtered and the meat dispatched to Germany. Belgian farmers have been warned that a large percentage ~of their grain and livestock is to be “nationalized.” Norway’s entire catch of fish is reported to have been swallowed up for canning in the Reich. And, by raiding the grain reserves of the west, Germany has raised her own supplies by two million tons. At the same time the unfortunate “protectorates” have relieved Germany of the feeding of the thousands of soldiers in the armies of occupation.

The Germans do not submit to the same conditions as their unwilling hosts. In Poland there are two scales of rationing, for Germans and non-Ger-mans; in Holland the Germans are exempted from a rationing system which has fixed the weekly allowance of nil oils and fats as low as 4oz. In Belgium those buying food in German marks secure their orders at a 20 per cent, discount. Germany’s Responsibility That Hitler should wish to give his own people a tangible proof of victory in the shape of more fats and more meat is understandable. That he should strip conquered territories of everything that can feed his armament industries i.s hardly unexpected. That he should mobilize the conquered peoples into a 1 forced labour system, and that lie should give them starvation wages and keep them at work by threatening to deprive them of their ration cards is altogether in keeping with his treatment of his own people. “Guns and not butter” is, after all, not a new thing—only now it is being applied on a Continental scale.

What is incomprehensible, unjust and entirely ludicrous, says the “Economist” in criticizing tlie Hoover scheme, is the suggestion that kindhearted but misguided enthusiasts should now undertake to underpin this system of organized destitution by relieving Hitler of the responsibility of keeping his helots iu working trim. No kind of neutral organization or supervision could overcome this basic injustice, that the feeding of Hitler’s subject peoples by anyone but the Nazis sets free food for the German army and fats for German armaments.

In fairness to ourselves and to the cause of freedom we defend, we must steadfastly refuse to allow the passage of food ships. But this refusal is not enough. As the darkness of famine descends and the Nazi propaganda machine drums home the alleged guilt of Britain, it is no adequate reply, however often we repeat it, to say that it is the Nazis’ duty, not ours, to feed Europe. We have to prove much more forcibly our concern for Europe and define the Nazis’ responsibility for starvation in far more unmistakable terms. Food Reserves Scheme

The most promising proposals suggest that Britain, it' possible in collaboration with the United States, should set up large food reserves and work out an efficient scheme of distribution to be put into practice- the instant the occupied territories emerge from captivity. The existence of such reserves aud such machinery could be the basis of British propaganda to the Continent and would powerfully press home the identification of the Nazi system with privation and misery. At the same time, the purchase of a great part of the growing surpluses of South America—it is estimated that the expenditure of £100,000,000 would cover the transaction —would nullify Nazi propaganda in the New World, while the policy wo have already embarked on of buying up large stocks in our own Empire, in order to secure the livelihood of hard hit producers, could be linked to the larger scheme.

The whole organization might well have important post-war repercussions. The original reserves, later adapted as buffer pools, could help to stabilize the

economic conditions of ihe primary producers. Above all, we must purchase surpluses for a constructive purpose. Nothing would fit more completely into the Nazis’ picture of the “hunger blockade” than a British policy of buying up surpluses to destroy them. We must l>uy for distribution, not destruction. NEARLY FAILED AT RED CROSS TEST “Examination to-night . . she coughed sniffed “I’ll never be fit for it!” “Ye> yr>u will have some Pulmonas,” said her friends “They always stop my colds ’ Pulmonas, the soothing antiseptic pastilles, dissolve slowly on the tongue releasing healing, penetrating vapours that destroy cold germs. Never be without Pulmonas. All chemists and stoves. 1/1, 1/7 and 2/7.