STARVING WORLD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6240, 10 June 1946, Page 7

STARVING WORLD

THE POSITION TO-DAY A third of the people in the world are starving at this very moment, another third are on the borderline, while the remainder are comfortable with even some food to spare. The third group, however, not a sufficient Surplus to bring the first group up to the food level of the second. It is not possible completely to relieve the world food shortage at present; the most that can be done, and the least that should be done, is that people with more than enough food should reduce their consumption so as to increase the surplus available for the starving. This is a fair summing up of the world food crisis, derived from the British Government’s White Paper issued at the beginning of April, together with facts from a survey by the Emergency Economic Committee for Europe. Situation in Europe.

In Europe alone 100,000,000 people are at starvation level to-day. Their diet contains less than 1,500 calories a day, which is about half of the usually recognised minimum requirement. These people include the nonfarm populations of Finland, Eastern Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, the inhabitants of the tobacco-growing regions of Bulgaria and the townpeople in Hungary, Italy, Rumania, and Spain. The town populations of Germany are receiving about 1,500 calories a day.

About 40,000,000 other Europeans are extremely hungry, with less than 2,000 calories a day. These people include the non-farm populations of Finland, Eastern Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, the inhabitants of the tobacco.-growing regions of Bulgaria and the townspeople in Hungary, Italy, s ßumania, and Spain. The town populations of Germany are receiving about 1,500 calories a day. About 40,000,000 other Europeans are extremely hungry, with less than 2,000 calories a day. These people include the non-farm populations of France, Greece, Bohemia, Moravia, Western Slovakia, and parts of Yugoslavia. The people of Belgium, Holland, Norway and Poland have less than 2,500 calories a day. The United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland are the only European countries approaching the minimum of 2,650 calories a day. These are the only European countries in which disease and malnutrition can Zealand level is about 3,000 calories a be kept under control. (The New day.) The number of calories gives only a rough index of the food level; these people lack fats, proteins, vitamins, and mineral salts, which are essential.

Thus, of Europe’s population of 300,000,000, about 200,000,000 are in a starving or semi-starving condition. There is a potential threat of disease spreading throughout the world as itdid after the last war. These people have not the nourishment to. give them resistance to disease; furthermore, they have not the strength to carry out the work of rehabilitating themselves. They lack the seeds and the stock necessary to overcome their famine conditions in the near future.

While demand is twice that of normal times; the major wheat-producing countries—U.S.A., Canada, Argentine, and Australia—have an exportable surplus of only half that df normal times, and this means using up every bit of their reserve stocks. Droughts are largely responsible for this. South Africa is now desperate for cereals, and the Asiatic countries have had a very poor harvest of rice. An import of 5,500,000 tons of cereals is the minimum requirement for India and China, and this will have to be made up partly from wheat because of the little rice available. During the next year the world demand for cereals of all kinds, at its very lowest figure, will be 47,000,000 tons. The maximum possible supply is 36,000,000 tons. Eleven million tons of absolutely necessary food cannot be found anywhere in the world.