A FUGITIVE LINER

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2238, 26 August 1914, Page 6

A FUGITIVE LINER

London; August 24. '"Tho Norddeutscher Lloyd linor Zieten (8020 tons), winch left Sydney for Bremen on July 8, was last reported in. tlio Mozambique .Channel, off the east coast of 'Africa. -

FOOD'SUPPLIES IN WAR TIME

BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ; .REPORT. ■■'-; • The question of national food supplies in war time has been the subject of 'deliberation by a committee appointed about u year ago by the London Chamber of Commerce, and the report of/this body, which included many prominent men, has just been issued. It state's at the outset that the committee, has practically confined its attention to the changes which have occurred in the general situation, economic and strategic, since the investigation of the Royal Commission which reported on tlio subject in 1905. It appears from tho report that the committee limited its inquiry, to the following de-

finite- aspects, namely. Increase of population; home production; foreign and colonial imports; facilities for maintaining stocks, both of home and imported produce; modifications in trade routes; the naval situation and tho ■ international law governing maritime warfare. Tho general impression produced by tho observations of the committee on -these heads is that tho situation has clearly become more serious, The population has decreased by 9 per cent, in the last decade; home production, broadly speaking, is, on the average,/scarcely increasing; while foreign and colonial imports are rapidly growing, particularly in so far as meat, one of the two most important articles of diet, is concerned. Nothing whatever appears to have beon done to carry out the recommendation of the Royal Commission with regard to keeping stocks of wheat, which to-day are possibly lower than ever contemplated by that body, and it is suggested that the trade routes ' are afforded less direct protection by the Admiralty than herebefore. ...-..' ■' SATISFACTORY FEATURES. There aTe, of .course, satisfactory features about tho i-eport, as, for example, the fact that the importation of Canadian wheat has quadrupled during the last ten years, and comfort is to be, found in the knowledge ! that grain, as woll as less important food products, reach this country from many directions and are, therefore, proportionately less liable to serious interruption—especially if national insurance or "national indemnity is brought into operation. The definite recommendations of:the committee are as follow:—That it is absolutely ■ necessary that ■ the Navy should be fully adequate for the protection of merchant vessels carrying food supplies;' that the homo production of food should; be encouraged and stimulated ;■/-that stocks of imported food larger''than are; required for. immediate consumption should be maintained; that' arrangements should be perfected in-time of peace whereby the distribution/;sihd control of food supplies in time of war should -bo under--taken by the, Government; that, as an additional means 'of, assuring the maintenance of, adequate _ supplies of food, the possible construction of tho Channel Tunnel should he taken into consideration; that a scheme for some form of national insurance-or .national indemnity should be prepared. _As will be seen, most of-'these coincide with the views of the. Royal Commission, and their import'is to emphasise the need, for action on- lines familiar to those who have studied the report of the commission, .and "with the object, principally, of; preventing "panic" prices and the evils inseparable therefrom.