BRITAIN'S FOOD PROBLEM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3332, 23 January 1918, Page 21

BRITAIN'S FOOD PROBLEM.

MUCH DISCONTENT. Lord Rhondda has ordered hundreds of prosecutions of food-hoarders, based upon inquiries into deliveries of goods by large stores in London and the provinces. The officials of the Ministry of Food have made many searches of private homes. At the end of 1917 food prices in Great i Britain were 106 per cent, above those ruling in July, 1914 s There has been little increase since July, 1917. The London food committees are considering Lord Rhondda’s draft scheme for the rationing of butter, tea, and margarine in London on the lines of the sugar scheme, with special tickets for children. The scheme will come into operation on February 25. Lord Rhondda, Food Controller, speaking at the Aldwych dub. said that, without wishing to alarm the public, we had reached the state that Germany reached two years ago, while now her position was perilous. He deprecated attempts to set class against class, but the rich and middle classes had responded more generally to for economy than the wageearners. There was now evidence, ho said, that farmers were deliberately withholding supplies. He concluded by saying: “There is no prospect of a meat famine such as afreets Germany, but we might economise more in meat for a few months.” A few colonial frozen rabbits have been released for sale, and were eagerly competed for, as English supplies practically vanished from the markets since the price was fixed. Instances are reported of the workers adopting a threatening tone regarding food shortage. A number of workmen at Middlesbrough abstained from, work, and Went as a deputation to the local Food Committee. They declared that they were working 16 hours a day, and living on bread _ and jam. Manchester and the surrounding areas have agreed to' adopt a ration scheme when the Food Controller is able to guarantee supplies. Crowds at Sheffield besieged the Belgian refugees’ horse-flesh shops, where large sales of horseflesh were made. The Food Controller "is fixing the maximum retail prices of fish. Food distribution is giving rise to much public discontent, particularly at Manchester. where 100,000 engineers decided to stop work on Saturday and march to the Town Hall to protest against the unequal distribution. Minor disorders have occurred in London, where women, in margarine queues, were demanding supplies. Everyth'ng points to the necessity for compulsorv rationing. The Food Controller will commandeer all from the 26th inst. The Brtiish Government has ordered 43,C00 tons of flour from Sydney firms for ’delivery by June at £lO 18s 6d per ton. MORE GERMAN CRUELTIES. Prisoners who have escaped from 'German camps and reached England narrate the infliction of horrible punishments on Englishmen refusing to work in the" mines. The offender is stripped naked, is thrown into a cell heated with hot air, the walls and roof of which are double-boarded. The heat is suffocating, as the only ventilation is_ provided by a. hole, the size of a crown piece. The man sweats and gasps for a time; then he is taken out naked and made to stand outside in any weather. These extremes of temperature are real torture. If the spirit of the man is still unbroken, he is knocked unconscious by a blow on the head with the butt-end of a rifle, and is then taken into a mine, and is not allowed to come to the surface until he agrees to work. The Germans are employing Italian prisoners on defensive works in Flanders under harsh conditions and within artillery range. SERBIA'S SUFFERINGS. A Serbian manifesto protests against the annihilation of their race. The Austrians, it declares, have carried out wholesale deportations of Serbian boys to Germany and Galicia. They have sent 15,000 to concon--1 tration camps, besides deporting 25,000 young children; and simultaneously thousands were sent to Asia Minor and thousands of girls to the Turkish harems. Now the Bulgarians are systematically deporting whole families for the purpose of wiping out all traces of Scrbain nationality, and are removing the priests, schoolmasters, and doctors.