FOOD RATION IN ENGLAND “IS PITIFUL”

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 40, 19 September 1949, Page 5

FOOD RATION IN ENGLAND “IS PITIFUL ”

“It is really pitiful to see and know what small rations those courageous people at home have to subsist on,” declared Nurse R. T. Cameron in an address to Whakatane women recently. “It is no wonder there is so much malnutrition,” she added.

Formerly district nurse for the Eastern Bay of Plenty Nurse Cameron was well known throughout the district and recently returned from England where she has spent the last two years selecting suitable young nurses to come out to New Zealand.

During her stay in the United Kingdom Nurse Cameron was particularly struck by the poor food ration. She noticed it particularly in the larger cities of England and Scotland. The exact quantity of food put on some tables for a week would not have fed one New Zealander at one meal, she said. In her address Nurse Cameron referred mainly to the food situation in England and how New Zealanders could help. Parcels were very welcome on any table in Britain. She admitted that many times food parcels from New Zealand had been the means of making her not quite so hungry as her friends. The main shortage was food and soap. What should be included in any good parcels were fats (dripping or lard), meats, milk (dried or liquid), fruit cake, jellies, teas, bacon and eggs.

Of the meats sent over none should contain vegetables or be made into pastes. Often vegetables will not keep and the meat is not edible when it arrives. Meat pastes are - obtainable in some quantity in English shops. Nurse Cameron said that fruit cake should never be sent iced. Although plain fruit cake will keep for months it does not keep so long if iced. This is more pronounced when an iced cake is sent to England when the icing sometimes goes bad. Nurse Cameron has been decorated with the Order of the British Empire and the Royal Red Cross for service in the First World War. Since her return to New Zealand she has been visiting her sisters Mrs J. Frazer and Mrs Mackenzie, of James Street, Whakatane.