GERMAN FOOD SCARCITY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14046, 17 July 1916, Page 10

GERMAN FOOD SCARCITY.

MELBOURNE WOMAN'S STORY. Corroboration dl the many cable .re-;' portts of food shortage m Germany ,i^ : . contained m a letter from a woman' who, after a long stay in' Germany, haa succeeded m reach ing Copen.hagen. Th© letter, which is ' addressed to -relatives m Victoria from ' Copen-, hagen, reads : — ■ v "You will ,be interested . to hear that we .are m a neviti'al' country, -and are now waiting for our pa^spbrts^to proceed to • England, and >fr<^ : there to Australia/ The perrrtissi<iii- ' for but re 7 turn lias already" be|ii£ o^btairi6d ' through the' American ,©nb'assy: '• -Things i *^gb so slowty" ribwj and "we ■•might I .']_Vo to rer main hero for some weeks, -bufc it is'.aj.. nice city.'i'T v Th^ ■'sux < rb'Undmg&' r al ; B vei'y, pretty, an-d, one caa liavetremendouslji 1 long trani rides for a penny; These trips are 'the only cheap things we have discovered so tar, for the place is overcrowded 'with ' Russians, Germans, some French, and n few English. The money I had sent from Germany has lost - considerably by exchange. -For 3200 marks (£160) I .will get only 20Q0 kronen (£110): I think w-e" got away front Germany just m time. Prqvisioiis wei-e gtttihg very scarce. The butchering establishments opened m the morning, and were be*' sieged by such crowds that only the strong coukl obtain any tiling^. " AfteV an hour or two everything would be-febld out, and' tho sliops; would remain closed for the rest of the day. Tilings went from bad to worse with extraordinary rapidity. A few weeks ago the shops' looked If airly well' stocked, and then suddenly there were only a. few baskets of eggs m the windows. Tins of Swedish; canned beef (21b) wore selling at 6s 6d. For soril© time" we had no milk excepting 1 Nonvegian sterilised' milk iri tinA at ■ Is"---3d p«r quart. % I heard it was i^p to Is 7d before we left. People-w ere"lo oking so thin. Fat was unprocurable^ 'and the One-eighth* . of po-uiid of ?'buttier per person, ' Which was: supposed to^be doled Out weeldy, was generally*' kept "back Until the' ninth' 'or 1 tenth -day. >i! l'must say* the' organisation, is wonderful, and evexyono gets his -'due atlowah^ cii'bread. Kverytiiing ayiail&tble is : '/fairly ■ 'distri-. buted,- but tlierb' is so -little.-" The'- cake shops are still able to turn out .marvel--lous cakes, but they are much more expensive tha.ii usual, and soon there aye to be tickets for these;." ' • -.

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