STARVING OUT THE BRITISH ISLES.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3545, 6 May 1880, Page 3

STARVING OUT THE BRITISH ISLES.

Enterprising Transatlantic meat shippers appear to be a tittle taken aback by the success of the Strathleven experiment. Hitherto they have had nearly a monopoly of the trade, and have certainly organised the supply satisfactorily and well. But American beef and mutton cannot

compete in the long run with A ustralian, as the latter is superior in quality, and can be landed in England at a lower price. There is, indeed, every reason why we should encourage the Australion shipments. Although far from entirely dependent upon external resources for our meat supply, it is yet an undoubted fact that we do not raise sufficient food for home consumption within the United Kingdom. Far fetched as the idea may seem, it is within the range of possibility that the British isles might be invested and starved out. So absolutely true is this that the fact has always entered into the calculations of Army

administrators who have sought to fix the strength of our military forces. We i t might, indeed we ought, ,to have an unlimited fleet, but we do not want an army larger than to repel a landing af say 300,C00 invaders. Enemies strong enough to put more than this in the field would not invade us at all—they would try to starve us out. The picture of relief expeditions, of food convoys, and blockade runners carrying cargoes of meat and grain, is not an agreeable one to Britons, who have so long declared they Dever would be slaves. But it is not wildly impossible either. The moral of it is that we should always keep the islands well victualled with vast stores of biscuit and tinned meat. —Home News.