FOOD PROBLEM IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3037, 26 March 1917, Page 5

FOOD PROBLEM IN BRITAIN

WILL .THERE BE RATIONING 2

HBARDING OF FOOD

; tflndon, MarcH^3. Mr. H. A. Watt urged that, ;m owing to the submarines the food position had become serious,.the Government Khoula take over the entire .control ana aesi out food through tlie.looalauthflrrKea. Rationing was bound to coma. O&eE members complained of ; bad msuibu- , tion of coal. \'. : H, Roberts, ; ..Parliamentary Secretary to the Board• of Tradej 'admitted that there had been a_coal shortage, owing to transport; difficulties. If :the war lasted into next winter it might ie necessary to-give the local authorities power: to acquire; and distribute the coal supplies. : .Captain Bathurst, Secretary to the Food. Controller's Department; on behalf of, the Food Controller (Lord Dejohport)',- said he.was not going to disguise ■ the . fact that the food • outlooK was not wholly 'The country would' Jut much better able to cope with: its difficulties W. the-food stringency whicK was liiely to develop had been foreseen earlier in the;war.

lii spite of the shortage of tonnage and the activity of the submarines, our poorer plasßes were suffering le'sa from' scarcity !of_ food -than the poor of : any other: belligerent. It,was not true to say that the hoarding of food-was the faul'o.of ffie rich. It'was no ( b limited to, one classJ Nothing was morerdanerous at the present crisis, than to excite'class prejudice. ■ -■-; The Food Controller did not apmove of the'establishment of .muiiicipal depots, which would result in ohios by divorcing the distribution of, food .front 1 . the natural commercial channels, would mean setting, up another'machine which would possess neither experience nor, praoticaLknowledge.. -■- - If: the .public used substitutes''generously for ,tho next three months the. supply of potatoes would be sufficientto carry /through until the.new , crop came, in. • Even in the absence of jota-' toes and sugar, the country would not be starving. There was no cause for food Tiots.— Allß.-N.Z. Cable Assn.. ;