THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1915. WHEAT AND THE WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15834, 3 February 1915, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1915 . WHEAT AND THE WAR.

While the world was at peace, the industrial countries advancing in prosperity, and the great agricultural regions of the temperate zones being rapidly occupied, wheat grew constantly in popularity and became the great food staple of civilisation. In this as in all other British countries we have become accustomed to think of an unlimited supply of the great cereal as absolutely essential to existence, forgetful of the fact that even during the pioneering years of New Zealand he a ten flour was extremely dear and other foods were in common use. Thanks to the energetic action of the Massey Administration, this Dominion is being sufficiently supplied with wheat to remove any fear of shortage for many months, but no regulations have been able to prevent a pronounced increase in price. It is, of course, decidedly advantageous that by increase in price, the growing of wheat should be made so profitable as to induce farmers to sow larger areas and thus to provide against a demand which must be sustained and even increased as long as tho war continues. "Whatever substitutes fur wheaten bread are resorted to by civilian populations, there is no practical substitute in the feeding of armies in the field; unless soldiers are well fed their efficiency rapidly declines. The prospect is that the numerical strength of all European armies will be raised and not reduced as the struggle intensifies. This military demand is so imperative and so great that it must absorb any surplus wheat produced in any country which has free access to market, and wheat-growing in thus made one of the most promising forms of agricultural enterprise. It must be understood, however, that wheat is not the key to the international situation and that belligerent nations can face and

overcome wheat shortage if they are prepared, by enforcing the use of substitutes, to return to the conditions prevailing before wheat became the great breadstuff of civilised men. It is a great advantage to the Empire to be in possession of sufficient wheat to meet all requirements, but it is not fatal to Germany and Austria for their populations to be compelled to economise their supplies.

* Germany and Austria have promptly recognised the necessity of compelling substitutes for wheaten flour, and have taken drastic steps to prevent wheat supplies from being prematurely exhausted. As the basis of this action, Germany appears to have made wheat the subject of a state monopoly, the obvious effect of which is to give army requirements a first call upon available stock and to enable the balance to be effectively controlled. Such sweeping measures could only be enforced with great difficulty in democratic countries, but the supremacy of the military organisation in every department of German national life enables tho domestic determinations of the Potsdam military authorities to be carried into effect with ease and certainty. The Kaiser cannot secure compliance with such a decree as that his armies shall enter Paris or reach Calais, but he can make the German people eat bread made of wheat, rye and potatoes as easily as he can shoot every Belgian who is caught attempting to escape into Holland. Germany is not only a great barracks to-day but has also been a great barracks for many years; the military worth of this is shown by the promptitude with which the entire national strength can be concentrated in any given direction as the moral worthlessness is shown by the docile acceptance of the most depraved and unscrupulous orders- By her all-pervading militarism, Germany is able to make the most of her available food supplies, as she will make tho most of everything by which she may hope to pluck victory from the jaws of impending defeat. From being the main food-staple, wheat, in Germany, has been reduced to a level with rye, barley, oats, potatoes, and beans. This is certainly disadvantageous to her, in a variety of ways; particularly by the constant intimation to a despondent population that the war is not a triumphant march to Paris and a profitable exploitation of unprepared and over-borne neighbours; also by the necessity to engage in food-production men who might otherwise be employed more profitably or sent to the fighting line; but it avoids national hunger and assists in making the outcome of the war depend upon the military issue. As a consequence of the state monopoly in wheat generally reported to have been established in Germany, one confusion between positive and conditional contraband would seem to have been eliminated. Germany has torn up every " scrap of paper" which she has signed and might fairly be considered outlaw among the nations. There are, however, neutral countries eager to trade 'with Germany, and these " neutrals" eagerly appeal to international law whenever it appears profitable for them to do so. By international agreements foodstuffs are "conditional", contraband, that is to say shipments destined to assist military operations are contraband, but shipments destined for civilian consumption are not contraband. If all wheat entering German territory, by port or frontier, passes* into the hands of the militant state, it is impossible to distinguish the purpose to which it may be applied. Mr. Woodrow Wilson and his chief adviser in such matters, Mr. Bryan, may be able to evolve a solution satisfactory to their German friends, but unless the great majority of the American people are willing to be dragged into war in support of the Kaiser there must be a limit to tho sophistries and quibblings of the American authorities. The activities of German agents arc notorious, and nowhere have they been more active than in the United States, where the blind sympathies of ai great German-born section and tho equally blind cupidity of American traders are being used as levers to I create antagonism between the Washington Government and the Allies. These elements are combined in the endeavour to pour American wheat freely into Germany and are quite indifferent as to whether it feeds the German invaders of Belgium, France, and Poland or whether it enables the I Kaiser to repeal his regulations against the making of bread made I from wheat only.