OLD SALTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 48, 4 May 1942, Page 2

OLD SALTS

WOULD SHIVER THEIR TIMBERS OYER SHIP'S BISCUITS OF TO-DAY British seamen compelled to take to their boats no longer have to dig their teetli into the ironclad ship's biscuits of tradition. Instead they are given dainty little -wheatmeal biscuits, about 2in square and %in thick. Packed in rust-proof watertight containers, IS to a lb tin, there is enough in each boat to supply every person with 14oz. Together with pemmican (a concentrated mixture of beef extract), malted milk tablets and chocolate, the shipwrecked sailor is now provided with "minimum" rations which are no! only more varied and tasty than the old biscuits and condensed milk, but have a much higher food value. What is even more important, the space saved can be used for carrying water, the ration of which is now three times as! great as it was. These biscuits are made not only by Britain's table biscuit makers, but })3 r people who normally turn cut thousands of tons of dog biscuits and who have swung over to war production in this way in three Avars, the South African, the 1914-1918 and the present. In the last European war one firm alone made a grand total ei 1,2.">(),976,70S biscuits for the armed, forces; enough to go three times round the globe. To-day, they and the- other concerns in Great Britain are making biscuits for the fighting forces as well as for the Merchant Navy. The Army likes its biscuits in oblongs, rather than squares, and pai'ked in grease-proof paper, the Reval Navy, on the oilier hand, prefers its own cabin biscuit.