THE BRITISH FOOD STRINGENCY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVI, Issue 16228, 26 March 1917, Page 8

THE BRITISH FOOD STRINGENCY.

■DISCUSSED IN COMMONS. . (Australian and N.Z Cable Assn.) LONDON. March 23 ■ . In.the House of Commons Mr H. A. Watt urged that owing to submarines the food positionHvas serious, and the Government should take over the pritire control and deal out food through local authqrjtes.. Rationing was bound to come. Other members complained of the bad distribution of coal. . Mr C. H. Roberts admitted that there bad been a coal shortage, owijng to transport diffieultes. If the war' lasted till next winter it might be necessary to give local authorities power to acqui'.'e and distribute coal supplies. Coloned A B. Bathurst. on behalf of the Food Controller, said he was not. going to disguise the food outlook. It was not wholly satisfactory. The country ivptiid 'oe much better able to cope with difficulties if the food stringency which was likely to develop had been foreseen earlier in the war. Dosp'tc tho shortage of tonnage and the act'vity of' submarines the poorer classes in Britain were suffering less from the scarcity of food than the poor of 'any other belligerent country. It was not true to say that thev were hoarding food. That was a fault but it was not limited to one class. Nothing was more dangerous at the present crisis than to excite; class prejudice. The Pood Controller did not approve of the establishment of ' municipal depots'which would result in chaos, divorcing the distribution of food from tho natural commercial channels It would mean setting up another machine which would possess neither experience

noK. practical knowledge. If the public useo. substitutes generously during .the next three months the supply of potatoes would he sufficient to carry them through, until the now crop. the absence of potatoes and sugar the country would not be starving. s Thcro was no cause for food riots.