GERMAN MEAT FAMINE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1943, 29 December 1913, Page 7

GERMAN MEAT FAMINE.

GOVERNMENT INQUIRY. 1 INSUFFICIENT SUPPLY OF CATTLE. .l'ho high prieos of meat- prevailing throughout Germany in 1912 induced tlio Imperial Government to appoint a commission of 30 members to inquire into "conditions prevailing in the trade with cattlo and meat." This commission recently completed its lnlours, mid the report, based on oviclcnco taken from experts, was cxpected to lie' published shortly after the last mail left Europe.

The sittings were almost always presided over by Dr. Dclbruck, the Secretary of State for the Intel ior, and the evidence of about 150 experts from all parts of the ICmpiro was taken verbally. The experts included farmers, butchers, commissioners, and directors of abattoirs, mayors, town councillors, directors of co-operative societies, big 'stores, etc.

Since the subject of report was officially limited to the conditions of tlio trado in meat tho results, according to the London "Daily News." are for the most part negative, but the report docs show that tho fault does not ljc in extravagant profits either of .middlemen or of wholesale butchers or of retail tradesmen. Nor can the supposed high charges of tho abattoirs account for tlio prices prevailing. ' Contrary to Minister's Views. During tho debate in the Eeiclistag last November the Minister <pf Agriculture, Hcrr von Seliorlonior-Lieser, publicly attributed the high prices largely to tho profits of tho vaiious persons through whoso hands the meat reached tho retailers and the consumers. Tlio report of the commission directly con.tradicts the assumption of the Minister of Agriculture. It points out that tlieso various agents of distribution aro not only uecossary, but actually chcapen tho meat, owing to their division of labour.

i It can hardlv have been in era coincidence that "if the eight niaikots visited the great majority of businesses investigated showed a net loss on; their working" The immense profits attributed to the ordinary trade are shown to have existed only in the vivid imagination of the supporters of tho-,"cottiplsto tariff-wall." , The agrarians also claimed that meat was enhanced in price beyond reason by municipal . profits from abattoirs and cattle compounds. Dr. Delbruck pointed out that a reduction of the abattoir fees 'would have no effect on prices, and that the expense to the retailer Irould be greater if butchers were left to provide their own abattoirs. Foreign Meat Importation. Tlio importation of foreign meat and its distribution by the municipalities as practised largely, in tho last eighteen months are regarded by tho Commission as "emergency measures capable at' times of providing the poorer classcs with somewhat cheaper meat." The agrarian proposal that communities should arrange five-year contracts with inland cattle farmers through their central agencies was regarded with distrust by the Commission, which, however, pointed out that tliero was no experience to justify comment. The only community; Ulm in South Germany, which f had tried the experiment bv arranging a' five-year agreement _ with swine-breeders' had had- its experiment' interrupted owing to swine fever. Real Gauso ,of.the .Evil. "It is a pity,*?' writes Dn WendorfF, Toitz, a member of tho in tho "Borsen Courier,"'"that the Commission was not able to, deal with the real cause of the evil—namely, the relation between supply and demand. Only by the way could tho Commission point to'the actual fact —namely,' that tile German cattle-breeders do not breed sufiieient cattle to supply the demand. In order to get at the"root of this evil we do not require Commissions on all sorts of minor incidentals, but. we do need to break with our agrarian policy; Wo need cheaper,', untaxed fodder, wo need a groat increase of cattle-breeding peasant farmers,, and a well-planned colonisation of onr own country."