HEMMED IN BY WAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14839, 17 February 1919, Page 4

HEMMED IN BY WAR.

EFFECT OF SEA POWER ON INLAND SWITZERLAND.

BERNE, Dec. 10.— The further ,east one travels from £}reat Britain, the greater becomes one's knowledge of the part the British Grand Fleet played in winning the war— sea power and the food question are so closely allied. In {Switzerland one iinds a country* that for more than four years was hemmed in by belligerent countries. Sea power strangled th 6 Central Powers, and Switzerland had to suffer with them. 11l this country there are no fewer than nine food cards, and the rules are most strictly enforced. The daily allowance of bread is about seven ounces ; half an ounce of fat is all that may be consumed per day. There are butter cards and there are cheese cards, but I have not seen either commodity since I left France. s

Sometimes one can be supplied with a tiny drop of mjlk with one's morning cup of tea, but this had better not I e reckoned upon. The Swiss are paying the penalty of supplying Germany with milk. They have little themselves, but they have been sending more than 400,---000 pinja to Germany each week. The only important article of food that is not rationed in Switzerland is meat. There is plenty, and probably to spare, for much meat has walked on four legs over . the smugglers' paths Across the frontier to Germany. Switzerland knows that, had Ge/many controlled the seas, she wduld most likely .have starved, but, if she has gone short, it is because of the German submarine campaign. She thinks it over and compares what the Entente has alJowed her with the very meagre coal allowance from Germany. Because coal is lacking, trains crawl in Switzerland to-day, and, as if she had not suffered enough, Germany tried to make her defeat coincide with a Bolshevist uprising here: ". While the civilised world, including French Switzerland, hung out ■ flags and acclaimed the victors, Berne and the rest of German Switzerland was practically under martial law. Machine guns were at street corners, and while French, British, and Belgian interned prisoners sang and cheered, thousands of people, including myself, were dodging cavalry .charges. Finally, the Federal Government rounded up the. Bolshevists, and flung them, bag and baggage, over the frontier into their, "spiritual home" — Germany. Afraid of invasion by Germany, and fearful of the Bolshevists, the Swiss. Army — very smart and GeTm'ari-looking in shrapnel \helmets — had been mobilised, demobilised, and remobilised. The deathrate from influenza has been . fearful. However, the scourge is passing, and the Bolshevists have gone, but the imprint'Oir sea- power will leave ita mark on Switzerland for many a day.