LARDER HIT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 10 December 1940, Page 3

LARDER HIT

FOODSTUFFS IN BRITAIN NEW SCALE OF VALUES CHAPTER OF FRUSTRATIONS LONDON, 30th November. Nothing better illustrates life’s new scale of values than a recent charity raffle in which the prizes were an onion, a lemon, an egg, and a pair of silk stockings, and the priority exactly represents the degree of difficulty in obtaining any of the four. The worst position probably concerns onions, which at one time were a shilling per lb., and yet they were as tiny as picklers. The moment the Government fixed the price dt 4Jd supplies dried up mysteryisly, suggesting that those suspected of trying to corner the market had bitten their fingers, and were holding supplies resentfully. Others are refusing to supply greengrocers unless they also buy luxury exotic fruits on which the speculators make up their desired margin of profit. LEMONS ALMOST DISAPPEAR With lemons, although the regular sources are easily accessible, the price ran up to lOd each for unsatisfying, shrivelled specimens. Their disappearance from the market also coincided with price-fixing. The sense of deprivation would be softened if the first shipment from California destined for Eire had not been carried in the convoy for which the Jervis Bay saerified herself—a loss indirectly due to the denial to the British Navy of the use of Irish West Coast bases.

The simple trouble concerning eggs is the reduced number of hens because of feeding restrictions. Dutch and Danish sources are sealed and Australian and New Zealand exports are not yet in full measure. As if to add injury to the insult of one tiny rasher of bacon for breakfast, there is now a risk that the substitute, marmalade, may go off the market because of a price haggle ™?’ 0 . 00 sterl “S more than the food Ministry was prepared to pay and if a deal for Spain’s export surplus of 312,000 cases is not clinched this week, the marmalade factories will be starved. The irony of the, position is that the haggle concerns a farthing extra on each 21b pot of jam. NO MILK CHOCOLATE Food fancies nowadays encounter a sorry chapter of frustrations. The idlest of all hopes is to find slabs of milk chocolate. The prospect of such indulgence has now receded farther under a decree disallowing the use of milk during the next two months for the manufacture of chocolate, toffee ice cream or condensed or powdered milk. In the event of the seasonally depleted supplies of milk being inadequate for domestic requirements, preference will be given to nursing mothers and children. Increased consumption and decreased yield is the chief problem of milk supply An indication of the difficulty is the latest announcement of food coupons for cows’ fodder on the basis of milk output, in order to conserve feedstuffs. After Ist January, pig and poultry keepers will be allowed only a third of the pre-war feeding rations. And now manufacturers have begun an “unofficial rationing” of re- I tailers by 50 per cent, on the ordinary issue of cigarettes, causing smokers to rush the shops in the hope of laying in Christmas supplies. Transport dislocations and sudden transters of population have caused numerous famines in tobacco. A sharp reduction in Britain’s average yearly consumption of 60,000,000,000 cigarettes is inevitable. Men complain that women make the position worse by never smoking cigarettes to the end. Virginian zealots will soon be forced to adapt their palates to the Turkish blend, as a result of Turkish supplies having been bought by Britain to assist the Ottoman finances. SILK STOCKING FAMINE Womenfolk are dumbfounded at the mystery of the silk stocking famine. Generous supplies had been promised earlier, but these have vanished into thin air, while ample quantities have been reserved for the export trade at prices lower than English prices. Women disdainfully : reject the old-fashioned lisle substitutes, which are now priced as high 1 as 3s lid a pair. This is attributed to 1 the manufacturers making up on the home swings what they lose on the export roundabouts. 1 Attention is being officially devoted ‘ to the hotel racket. These are charg- 1 iPjS 27s 6d, instead of the usual 11s 6d lor bed and breakfast, to casual * lodgers bombed out of their homes. £ The “Daily Mail” foreshadows, as 1 a retribution, the early commandeer- 1 ing of such hotels for public needs.