POTATOES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12064, 20 July 1917, Page 3

POTATOES.

ENGLISH NOBILITY STOPS EATING THEM.

(Correspondent Chicago "Tribune.") LONDON, May 32. To American ears, at any rate, ?t rnust sound almost a satire when I mention that :i person named Mrs Millie Rockefeller was summoned at tho Thamas Police Court for paying more than the specified price for potatoes. This, according to law, at the timo was a penny hair-penny a pound. Mrs Rockefeller only wanted to buy two pounds of potatoes, but tho greengrocer to whom she mado this modest appeal said .she could not have any. After subsequent conversation ho intimated that sho could buy a sack for fifteen shillings. Mrs Rockefeller, being a woman with a speculative nature such as might he expected from one of her name, closed with the bargain and thereby both sho and the greengrocer fell into the jaws of tho law. The making of tho "deal" was overheard by a polico officer, and the result was that Mrs Millie Rookefeller was fined £1 for her extravagant- and illegal transaction, while the greengrocer had to pay half that sum for selline the precious potatoes afe above their market value.

Personally, I am only just now beginning to realise the value of a potato as applied to the national menu of tho moment. For myself, I never eat potatoes. I was onco told that thoy had a fattening, therefore a deleterious, effect upon the figure. From the day that ] heard this rumour, true or untrue. I struck them of my daily menu. ROYALTY "OFF" POTATOES.

Therefore the present excitement that has been occasioned throughout Britain concerning potatoes has como as a considerable surprise to me. Duchesses and other ladies of high degree aro entirely abjuring the use of potatoes so that their less fortunato sisters may have a larger share to dole out to their clamouring families, and. I also learn that these self-sacrificing ladies are regarded almost as martyrs for so doing. It seems that tho total of war-time endeavour is thus increasing and that national servico can include under its heading those who refrain from eating potatoes, boiled, baked. fried or saute.

Tho reason of the need for potatoes among tho poorer classes was brought homo to me very vividly, however, the other day when I was talking to a woman Avho docs " odd jobs" in tho way of scrubbing and cleaning.at various houses. She has a largo family of small children, and when I inquired why she looked so anxious and worried she told me it was because she could not get any potatoes. " But can't you manage without potatoes?" I asked. 1. was told that was impossible. Under normal conditions sho cooked in some way every day nine or ten pounds of potatoes, which, mixed with gravy and a very small quantity of meat, ' made excellent food for hungry children. RICE DOESN'T SATISFY.

" T am sure I don't, know what I am going to do now, though,'' she told me. " For sometimes I. can't get any pot a tons at all, and other days not more, than two or three pounds. Rice and other vegetables don't seem to satisfy children tho way potatoes do find so I've, got to buy more meat when I can afford it, which means three or four times the outlay that I usually expect for my week s housekeeping. Evidently the duchesses and dames of high degree and those of lesser station who eliminate tho potato from their daily menu are doing quite a good turn to poor people, and so, after all, they deserve thanks and encouragement.