GERMAN FOOD SHORTAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16496, 23 March 1917, Page 6

GERMAN FOOD SHORTAGE.

FEARS.. FOR THE FUTURE.

EVASIONS OF REGULATIONS.

' LONDON, March 9. In a speech in ,the. Prussian Diet on Germany's grave \ food : problem, the German Food Controller, Herr.von Batocki, said that the) situation /. was) especially ) grave, riot only ,m consequence of unfavourable weather, which ;: produced hardly imaginable ■ distress, [ particularly in large ,; industrial- centres, but that .there were ' apprehensions . for tho whole ensuing year. He foreshadowed scarcity of grain for bread. ' We discovered, "he declared, '' 'a general absence of the / hoped-for brave endurance." He also/quoted numerous instances' of evasion of the Government . measures, one result of which -: was • that : supplies of flour had been reduced in the most shocking .manner. He insisted that the question must bo grappled- unflinchingly.,. Some ;of r the mills.must be closed. Some of the municipalities ) had disputed - the ; a/utonomous powers, and/their: functions must be concentrated ;in ; his hands.: ;

;."'. The. Socialist member, Herr Hofer, declared that the present meat ration; was far; too small. It was damnable ?to withhold" such •a ; necessary j foodstuff ■ from the people in the solo interests of the agrarian tariff policy. ; The /Minister for '/Agriculture, Baron Schorlemer,- referred to "tho critical situation which had' arisen through tho partial success of the Entente plan of starvation. The good God alone is responsible, for the small ; bread ration, as He -has not ? given ■, us;; the „' expected l liar-': vest."

Herr von Batocki declared that tho "food ;V difficulties, with the consequent cessation of work, and more dismal things, in a; certain western town were attributable to the wholesale falsification of bread cards, which' had; resulted in ': all the food reserves being : used ;. up.'-! Unless drastic measures were adopted it would be; impossible to hold out.'; > > rglt is believed that the town Herr Batocki referred to was Essen,; where -it was reported that a big- hunger-strike occurred recently.