NOTES ON THE WAR

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXII, Issue 8872, 15 February 1943, Page 3

NOTES ON THE WAR

EUROPE GOES HUNGRY UNDER THE NAZI HEEL SUFFICIENT FOOD IN BRITAIN Maurice Hindus, the noted authority on Russia, gives in recent news a reminder of the price the people of the Soviet Union are paying for victory. Even in "free Russia" the civilian population is severely rationed to provide for the army, which he describes as "among the bestclad and best-fed in the world." This is the price of victory. Nazioccupied Russia is infinitely worse, and millions have died. Similar conditions in varying degree prevail throughout the rest of Europe under the Nazi heel. The position for the next few months will be acute.

In his darkly illuminating book, "Pall Over Europe," Oswald Dutch describes the situation as it was last year. Long before the outbreak of war, he says, the League of Nations had, by means of international surveys, the statements of medical authorities, and practical investigations, established that 2500 calories of food are the minimum necessary for one adult a day.

To-day this quantity is more or less available to the German people owing to the stocks acquired from other countries, in which, however, on Goering's principle that "other nations will starve before Germany goes hungry," the food available is far helow the minimum. Daily calories of food for the different countries of Europe are given by Dutch: —Greeks, 250, Jews 300, Poles 400, Belgians 1550, French 1600, Finns 1700, Italians 1800, Czechs 1900, Norwegians 2000, Netherlander 2000. Germans 2400, Danes 3000.

Expressed in terms of break, meat, sugar, fat, milk in that order, official rations, in ounces, for one week to a normal customer (adult but not heavy worker) for May, 1942, were:—Germany, 70, 101, 8,7, 2 pints; Italy, 37, 31, 41, 3h, 2 pints; France, 68, 8, 42, 31, 1 pint; Holland, 63, 9, 9. 7,2 pints; Norway, 64, SI, 7, 11, I pint; Bel-' gium, 55, 8?-, 8. SI, 1 pint; Poles, 35, 4,3, 3S, nil; Jews, 17, 2, li, 2, nil; Greece, 34, nil, 2, nil, nil. The distribution of food supplies has been further hampered by the removal of transport vehicles—railway and road —to Germany. In Greece civilian transport has been reduced to about 20 per cent, of normal, thus promoting the starvation of thousands. No figures are available for Nazi-occupied Russia, with its original population of over fifty millions. As this area was specially included in the Nazi "lebensraum" policy, where the population was to be thinned towards extermination to make room for German settlers, Mr Hindus' figure of six million perished is probably a low estimate. The lot of these suffering peoples is beyond description. The worst of it is that starvation on such a vast ■scale has not been a necessary concomitant of war; it has been the deliberate policy of extermination preached and practised by the Nazis. Feeding Britain By comparison, the lot of the people of Britain, on short commons though they are to save shipping and permit large armies to operate overseas, is a happy one. Nutrition had been carefully studied in Britain before the war, an official committee of experts sitting from 1935 to 1937 to provide a scientific background. When war broke out in 1939 the plan of feeding the people in wartime was far advanced. The Ministry of Food, under Lord Woolton ,has, by all accounts, managed exceedingly well.

The aim of the British nutrition policy has been to provide sufficient food for the whole country to keep the population fighting fit. Nutritional requirements are assessed yearly in terms of calories, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins. Estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture show to what extent British farmers can meet these requirements, and the balance remaining is then translated into terms of foodstuffs and imported from such sources as are available. Both home and foreign supplies are handled by the Ministry. At home all livestock and main crops have to be sold to the Ministry or disposed of under its direction, while the Ministry controls flourmilling, canning and jam making. Overseas supplies are purchased by the Ministry in the country of origin. {The elimination of competitive buy-

ing enables great financial savings to be made). These purchases both from home and overseas are sold by the Ministry to wholesalers, and prices are rigorously controlled right down to the final retail sale to the public. These operations make the Ministry the largest 'buying and selling organisation in the world. Success of Rationing The aim of distribution is equality, but rationing is modified to meet the special needs of various categories of the population, such as infants, school children, industrial workers, agricultural workers, city and other workers. Rationing is applied to the main sources of protein and fat (meat, bacon, butter, margarine), while energy foods, such as 'bread and potatoes, are un rationed, plentiful and cheap. Three million and a quarter nursing mothers and young children receive milk either free or at reduced prices. Since 1941 the Food Ministry has distributed vitamin-containing orange juice and cod liver oil to young children either free or at nominal prices.

Children under live have oranges reservedfor them and are allowed four times as many eggs as ordinary adults. Over three million school children have a glass of milk daily, in addition to home rations, at a cost of one half-penny.

Nearly a million children have their mid-day meal at school with a menu specially designed to cultivate a taste for vitamin-rich raw vegetables. For industrial workers there are canteens with dietaries suitable to the class of industry. Heavy workers receive a meat allowance 100 per cent, above that allotted to ordinary restaurants. Municipal "British restaurants," numbering 1840 cater for the city worker and mobile canteens for the land workers. Outside Tribute The whole scheme, of which the foregoing gives merely a hint, has worked and is working with extraordinary success. Mrs Roosevelt, who examined the whole system from the woman's point of view, in her recent visit to Britain, has said: "The British resistance to hardship can only be explained by the scientific advance in nutrition. The British Government have managed through rationing to give the people a betterhalanced diet then ever before." It should be added that the system is popular; that the people realise they are fit and healthy, and know the reason why; and that communal feeding arrangements are thoroughly approved and are changing the nation's eating habits. Lord Woolton, next to Mr Churchill, is the most popular member of the Government.