EVERYONE ON RATIONS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14609, 20 May 1918, Page 8

EVERYONE ON RATIONS.

♦ FROM ROYAL FAMILY TO ■'COSTER." FOOD CONTROL IN ENGLAND Systematic rationing has come, at last. London has leached the- p'oint whkh Germany li-aclictl in 191b. But Australians m'od not lie afraid that their English friends and relatives are in actual want (write* the Loudon correspondent of Mel'-wurne Argus). There is still food in plenty, hut as a. community wc canno longer liave as much as .we can pay for. Each monilicr can only have, tiies share. Big eaters of times past finish a meal with a- sense of dissatisfaction, and a- few complain cf an aching void which the rations entirely fail to fill. But moderate eaters have enough. At any rate, no one gets more than his share. From hovel to palace, from richest to poorest, we are a.i being fed by- coupon. Already 10,000,000 men, women, and children in the Horn© counties are nnder the • compulsory rationing scheme, and by the 25th March rationing will he general throughout the country for meat, butter, and sugar. Before those lines are in -print in Australia u national rationing scheme will have' been evolved, applicable, as necessity arises, to all staple foodstuffs. Manchester, for example, has already adopted a provisional scheme, whereby everyone' will receive loa.of tea, 4oz of butter or margarine, and Boz of sugar a day. With tliis temporary rationing has gone a tendency to fix thc prices of many staple articles of food. Thus it is illegal in England and Wales to charge more, than 2s Gd a pound for tea. The Govern-ment-blend tea is the only tea.. There is nothing cheaper and nothing dearer. Here are the -maximum prioes for some of the chief cuts of beef, without bone *. Silver-side, Is 9d a pound ; sirloin, Is lid; leg and shin, Is 4d; rump steak, 2s 2d ; sausages, containing not less than 50 per cent, of meat, Is 3d. All this interference with the laws of supply andi demand is very, alien to British experience, iwhich has revelled' in tlie liberty of free trade for sixty years. But the interference is better than queues. The butchers and grocers have had sufficient supplies of the rationed goods to. honor all coupon**, and queues have only been formed where the womenfolk of London have left their shopping- too late. There were a considerable number of people who "hoarded" their coupons in order to have a good-sized joint for the Sunday dinner. These had to wait a long; time during' the "busy shopping hours of Nuturday. Bnt for the most part the coupon system worked well and justified/' itself to the full. 7 Roughly, the scheme chosen by Lord Rhondda, the Food Controller, is this: Every man, woman and child in the London area—ten millions in all— is supplied with a card divided into 80 parts, and numbered hv sets of fours. There are. four_ "l!s," for example, representing, the individual's share of meat for a week. Each adult's coupon represents 5d worth of meat, a child under 10 only being entitled to half the adult's share. Each person, therefore, gets about Is 9d worth of meat a rareek. "being roughly tlie value of a pound, of the. 'bajt meat. As a fact, however, only three of. the coupons eaoh week can be used for the purchase of butcher's meat. The fourth lias a weight value, and can only be used for such things as bacon, poultry, sausages, and tinned meats. So eveiy adult's share per week is rather less than ono pound of butcher's meat (unless he is content with a poor cut), and tlie ration is supplemented with 3_oz of bacon, 6oz of sausages, 6oz of vension, 6oz of poultry, or lOoz of rabbit or hare. Even the King and Queen have their vation cards, and eat no meat which does not come within their allowance. Indeed, Buckingham Palace was on rations long before most households. The King and Queen have adhered to voluntary rations ever since they were proloosed by the Food Controller. It may be added that his Majesty's favorite joint is -a rib of the hest 'Scottish or English beef. As King George has a. large family, there is little doubt that a pooling ol the coupons at Buckingham Palace still brings the favorite joint -within the l'mits of possibility. In democratic circles there has been a suspicion that the aristocrat* were getting much more tlian their share of the available food. The belief is quite contrary to fact. As a rule, it has. been the well-to-do artisans and munition workers who have been having more than their due share. In Belgrave Square meals have been considerably smaller than /in- working-class districts for- many months. Well-to-do foik have preferred to do without food, rather than; stand in, queues ,* whereas other persons rejoice in the excitement of a struggle for. butter, tea, sugar, or meat, or a couple of hours' wait in a queue where the gossip of the neighhorhoodi is retailed in order to pass thc time. . Mrs Lioyd George tells that her butcher's bill at 10, Downing street, is only half what it Used to he. The Premier's household is rationed like everyone else, and !--Mr9 r Lloyd George says that "the house is a, very difficult one to make arrangements for in the matter of food, because -we seldom know who, or how many, will he sitting at our taljle for breakfast, lunoh, or possibly dinner. Mrs; Lloyd George's experience recalls that tew Londoners. now dare to make a call at meal-time, and that invitations to . dinner are remarkable for their absence. Tea-time is still a fashionable entertaining hour, but the wise carry little receptacles containing sugar or saccarine. No sugar is -Served in a or club, and the majority of "fiondon clubmen who take sugar with *te»**or. coffee carry a supply with thehi. TheVsugar ration is 4oz a week, thafcis T_lb for a family of six. Used with care,' jf is' enough, and the economical can- even save a little. each week for jam. iSuoh are some of the main facts and episodes arising from the introduction of rationing into the London area. Here are a few typical judgments npon the scheme in actual practice : Mr Oscar Asche and MLss Lily Brayton, whose prod-notion of "Ohu-chin-chon" is still' drawing all London to His Majesty's' Theatre, represent a small family. Miss Lily Brayton. says : "We have allowed . the servants to use their meat coupons as 1 tbey thought best. In the diningroom we have used our united coupons to buy a good piece of rump steak, which we haye had cooked in very small pieces and served at dinners as long as tlie pieces lasted." Mrs Mary Gaunt, the Victorian novelist and explorer, writes: "Considering that my doctor put me on a meat diet a short time ago, I do not feel particularly cheerful over the present prospect, but I am told that special certificates .will be issued to those who require meat for special complaints. In the meantime, in my household we conserved our cibupons for a week-end joint of diminutive proportions. I shall not dream of wasting a coupon at restaurant or club, and I find already that hostesses do not expect one to. come with coupons. They provide meatless lunches or dinners." Mrs H. B. Irving, the actress, the famous. Trilby of years ago by, savedi up her coupons, and got a nice httle joint at the iweek-end. Mr Eustace. Miles, the food reformer, has a comp.aint against- the Government for giving him a card at all. He does not oat meat, and contemplates the time when the accumulation of coupons will entitle him to a whole bullock. On the whole. Lord Rhondda's plans seem to have been well made and well carried out.