BRITAIN'S FOOD SUPPLY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14658, 16 July 1918, Page 5

BRITAIN'S FOOD SUPPLY.

CRITICAL PERIOD ' PASSED. ;

RELIEF FROM AMERICA

LONDON, June 30. It is officially admitted that the position: regarding food during the first -months of the year was extremely critl.cal. The country was consuming 450,000 tons of food a month above tho margin of safety-' ■•'•■••■■-.- : ' : : - ■ '■'■ ', : ■ - : This was partly ;! owing "• to the shortago of supplies from> America, and also to severe snowstorms 'preventing shipm£&k ......^i i ports ■becamo congested With- shipping awaiting the; arrival of snowedrup ; trainloads. .„v ::,-. ," „ - The !r^spstatoß^.^iv^^' : ---e ffi cieii t feeding of the Allies, l|embled; m the scales/ iAttsffalasiah -nicaV Wheat, and : bu^telj . might^s : >vellvvha.vo riot ' existed^ i because the only jhopc was, the restriotion of fihipping to the shortest ...A. severe system of rationing wa,s-itf-troduced,"-but the late Lord Rhondda, the Food Controller, did not/know where he would get the limited rations. Kq ;'/j&doredj.. compulsory milling to the -ex^r^ae', lin)it|: And everybody :felt the scarcity, ' biit 'few - kneSv of the"; , actual acriterifss a,nd difficulties of.thij posi-

Instead of "an expected 1,100,000 tons of breadstuff from America m; January, only 680,000, arrived j instead ■?<s* 6o,ooo tons of fcac&n only,- 11,000 / fcaiii© to hand. IThk i'esevvesii dwindled Jijind vanished. Aix impYovement began #&■■ April, when, largely owing to Lor6VNorthcliff c's railway policy and Mr. Hoover's voluntary wheatless campaign m America, sjuppliesHqtireased. ,. r :'- ; i The outstanding fad iiv thy' -emergency relief has been the great \ shipments of » American paeons and/ hams, which haift.beeir' pdufi^ into llija country m enormous quantities, The situation has been so'-'^ielieved. that everybody is able to bttj?; cheap povJs tongues and sausages without coupons, arid also (frequently, chickens, which drug : , the , market. , , The bread . is still dark brown and difficult to digest, but. there is ao need to-day for serious suffering. Ndarly all the fruit, crops are being seized idr making jam for, the army. Sti'awhei'ries are purchasable i only on Safcurdjtys.. Similarly, sugar is dear, and tobacco is scarce arid . high' priced. The police are preventing thi>: use of motor-cars for -non-war pjuvjioses.' The most difficult test* of the morale ;of the people' -remains^ in.' the breaking up of hundreds 'of;-; homes weekly for the army, and the consequent collapse o% businesses, '■, restriction of incomes, and the anxiety of wives and children. , tv.Neyertheless a^ game spirit prevails, and there is a singular 'lack-Vof ;: depressipiik • . -.-. -;y. . : « -■ t ! ■■•■«'■■;. : ■ •'' '■■■■■ /iV^ :i:r ex w toU^6f^6M'-p%ihases :^bVpa ; d is indicated by the fabt ttjat the wheat ;e^ecutive: spent ; '£37sXX)o ,ooo m 20 months on cereals m America and tHe Argentine.