MEAT FOR THE BRITISH ARMY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 8

MEAT FOR THE BRITISH ARMY.

In the course oi an article published by ..the Press Bureau in England, some interesting references are made to the wide use of frozen meats for |he British army and the Allies. Frozen meat was supplied to the British army for the first time during the South African campaign, and the success of the operation was undoubted. Forty per cent, of the meat consumed in Great Britain by the civil population before the war was brought from abroad in this way. The Board of Trade at the outset of the war arranged with firms importing meat from the Argentine for a monthly supply of 15,000 tons of frozen meat for the army and navy. Later the scheme was extended, and supplies procured for the use of our own army, and also for the French and Italian Governments, as well as for our civil population at Home. The principal source of supply is the Argentine, while our own dominions—Australia and New Zealand—reserved their entire surplus supply of meat for the use-of the Imperial Government, over £40,000,000 worth of beef, mutton and lamb having been supplied from the lands of the Pacific. All .e insulated space of the shipping engaged in the frozen meat trade.has been requisitioned. Some of the meat is brought to England, but the greater part of that required for the armies at the various fronts is carried directly to the base ports, where it is discharged to the cold stores erected for the purpose of storing meat, until it is required for consumption. Thirty thousand tons ofomeat per month is supplied by these methods to our army, and 25,000 tons to the armies of our Allies. The cost up to the beginning of 1916 was about per lb, but it has since risen to about The whole of the fresh meat issued to the army is thus entirely brought from abroad in a frozen state. Requisitioning in France is insignificant, and the herds of cattle which followed the troops in previous campaigns, and were slaughtered when required, have quite disappeared. Frozen meat constitutes 60 per cent, of the total meat issued to the troops abroad. The remainder is made up of preserved meat of several varieties. The ration scale allows 9oz of preserved meat per man per day .to be issued if fresh or frozen meat is not available, and each soldier is also required to carry in his kit one nominal pound of preserved meat as part of his emergency ration. The most familiar form of preserved meat ration is "bully beef ? " which consists of corned beef, packed in small, oblong, hermetically sealed tins, containing 12oz. This is the form which is issued for the emergency ration, since whilst the tin remains unbroken, the meat is imperishable. Some units cook their "bully -beef," others prefer it raw. But whatit is eaten, it is a healthy, and, when taken in moderation, by no means unpleasant form of food, and formed the principal article of diet of the army on the Gallipoli Pennisula. Another form of preserved ration is a combination of about 9oz of meat and potatoes, and other vegetables, cooked, and packed in a small round tin. This is warmed up, either by heating in the tin or by boiling the contents in a camp kettle, when it forms a stew which has achieved no small degree of popularity anions? the, troops. This ration, which is known as "meat and vegetable ration," is manufactured in England by about 30 firms, working under the inspection of the Local Government Board. Another form of preserved ration is pork and beans, familiar to readers of Jack London's stories of the mining and lumber camps in Eastern America. It consists of haricot beans cooked in sauce, with the addition of a small amount of pork. Pork and beans are obtained through the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, arid were introduced on an experimental scale in March, 1916. Two months later "pork and beans" were established as part of the normal ration, and many hundred thousand tins are now sent out weekly. It is stated that three and a half million tins of preserved meat, and meat and vegetable rations, are sent out weekly to the troops in France; and since the outbreak of war the Army Contracts Department has bought some four hundred millions of tins of -preserved meat'. In other words, taking each tin to weigh lib, the army has been supplied with over 178,500 tons of preserved meat, a weight roughly equivalent to that of six super-Dread-noughts.