FOOD PROBLEMS IN GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 7

FOOD PROBLEMS IN GERMANY

REMOVAL OF TRADE BARRIERS BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S AIM (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, June 13. The deputy military governor of the British zone of Germany (LieutenantGeneral Sir Brian Robertson), addressing 200 German food officials from the British and American zones In Hamburg, said that In little over a month sufficient potatoes should be available to maintain a regular ration. The British and American Governments were doing their utmost to ensure that adeauate wheat supplies were sent to ermany to maintain the present level of bread rationing. Lieutenant-General Robertson added that the British Government was pressing for the removal of trade barriers between the zones, which would considerably ease food problems in western zones, but he could not pretend that an early realisation of this objective was probable. It was not part ot the British policy to deprive the Germans of adequate supplies of food. Victory had not brought relief to Britain, but, on the contrary, things were worse than during the war. The British zone had to import about half its food, and therefore the burden fell on the British taxpayer, who found it difficult to understand why Britain's small dollar reserves should be mulcted to meet such charges. It was clear that the critical food shortage would persist at least until the 1947 harvest, and a widespread drought at .the end of the year or early next year might be even more disastrous than those last year. A slight increase of 46 calories a day will be made from June 24 in the ration for Germans u cities In the American zone with populations of more than 20,000, says a message from Stuttgart. The increase has been made possible by improved shipments of dried milk and dehydrated vegetables from the United States, the importation of fish from Scandinavia, and the exchange ot cattle for sugar from the Russian zone.