EGG QUEUES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 79, 17 July 1942, Page 5

EGG QUEUES

WHAT GERMAN HENS DO

HAVE THEN' GONE ON STRIKE,

Do German hens lay eggs? This is the puzzle Avhich Berlin housewives are trying to sol\ r e at present. My Avife has stood in egg queues dozens of times in the last month. As a rule, at the end of a 10-minute to half-an-hour Avail, she has obtained two eggs, although sometimes the stock gave out before she reached the head of the queue. But she never got a German egg. She collected Finnish eggs, Dutch, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Argentine and Bulgarian eggs, some alleged to be new-laid, others frankly from cold storage. But she never even heard of anyone getting a German egg. If German hens ha\ T e not gone on strike, what is being done Avith their eggs? I't is no light task keeping house in Berlin. Not only is there the long wait for eggs but there is the daily pilgrimage to the butter shop for the day's ration —if you miss a day you cannot get two days' supply the next time; it is lost for good. Then there are bewildering shortages of all sorts of things. Otoe day there are no onions, another no oranges. It may need visits to a dozen shops or stalls to get the ingredients of one dish. There are all sorts of tricks to be learned. You must knoAV never to ask openly for eggs, butter, oranges or onions if there are none on show. You must buy a feAV pounds of apples or cabbages or something, and then Avhen no one is-looking you open your mouth egg-Avise and Avhisper. A. mysterious packet is handed to you if won are lucky and you fiiwV when you get home that it has two eggs in it. Mysterious signs must be learned for other products Avhich are short. But there is one good thing. However great the shortage may be, prices do not A 7 ary. Nor must one get the Avrong impression that the German people are starving—there is plenty of food to be had, but one cannot always have just Avhat one Avants, at the time. The quality of many goods is also extremely low., Apples, for instance, arc to be had in plenty—but small, scrubby-looking fruit which would hardly find a place in the "speckled fruit basket" in a London market are only to be obtained for from fid to 7d per lb. The explanation of this is simple. Germany cannot buy the perfect American or Empire fruit, but she gets her fruilt hy bartering manufactured goods for them from the Balkan lands.