ALLIES' FOOD CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 112, 29 January 1918, Page 5

ALLIES' FOOD CRISIS

CALL TO AMERICANS ti d PROCLAMATION BY THE » PRESIDENT J a GOSPEL OF GOING WITHOUT i< Washington, January 27. ®. President Wilson lias issued a pro- £ ckmation calling upon Americans to reduce the consumption of wheat by 30 per cent. He urges them to use no s wheat on Mondays and Wednesdays, , no meat on Tuesdays, and no pork on Saturdays, and to take one meatless and one wheatless meal every day. "This sacrifice," he declares, "is necessary to meet the nation's great responsibility, as tho subsistence of p Europe rests very largely on our j shoulders." . . a Mr. Hoover (Food Controller) has j announced that bakers will hereafter make "victory bread," which must not contain more than SO per cent, of wheat flour. He also announced that the Government will purchase 30 per cent, of the nation's flour output, totalling three million bushels a month, for export to the Allies. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. t g ACUTE MEAT FAMINE IN j. ENGLAND DISAPPOINTED QUEUES AT SMITHFIELD PUBLIC DISCONTENT. London, January 27. > The meat shortage is the most acute •yet recorded. Queues assembled at Smithfield market at 5 o'clock in the morning, and the stalls were cleared before noon. Late-comers secured only liver, sheep's kidneys, and tinned meats. There were many queues in the ) suburbs and in the provinces. ' At Peterborough (Northamptonshire) I six thousand workers downed tools as 1 a protest against the food shortage. A I procession was formed, ■ and, speakers 1 urged that the striko should continue I until food supplies were adequate. J Tons of diseased meat aro reaching < Smithfield from Ireland. The meat is being condemned as unfit for consumpMounted police and Special constables I were called out at Tottenham and Ed- ' monton (London) to control a queue i a mile long. At Bootlo (Lancashire) . the crowd stoned a food official who I was making an effort to commandeer margarine.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. THE PLIGHT OF EUROPE FOOD SITUATION SCANNED. (Sydney "Sun's" Special Correspondent.) London, January 19. Many eyes cast towards Australia I see Paradise and plenty, furnishing the strongest contrast with grim Europe, whose peoples, divided into hostile ar- 1 mies, face each other, strained and suffering, nervously doubting their prospects in some cases, but mostly 1 buoyed up with hopes and promises of an early and favourable solution of tho war. , 'It is the bitterest weather for thirty years. This has intensified the. distress. Severe snow and gales prevail in all countries. The food queues lengthen and disorders increase-^ Though Britain's position is best of all, most households aro pinched, and none is living up to tho pre-war standard. Tho queues in London-con- - tinuo to grow. They began to-day in the darkness at 7 o'clock in tho morning. Some of them numbered a thousand, and waited three or four hours for tne chance of a little' meat. There is still no need of hunger or ill-health, but one must eat what he can get. Choico has disappeared. No Profiteering, There is increasing restlessness, and even occasional attacks on the shops by the workers, duo to tho belief that the rich are escaping the trials of shopping, which have become such a heavy strain on the women, but Lortl Rhondda's frankness is removing this trouble, and the public is generally accepting the restrictions .with a wonderful good humour, asking ouly for equality of sacrifice, and the cessation of profiteering. The Government has instituted a new catchword, "Tho Food Bullet." "Tho Times" remarks that a situation is imminent which will tax everybody to tho utmost, but need not occasion alarm. Despite regulation, it is believed that the official figures understate the cost of living. Tho middle-class declare that the increase is nearer 250 per cent, than 106. Enemy Much Worse Off. [ Conditions, are infinitely • worso in Austria and Germany, though i sterner regulation has limited tho increase in cost to 68 per cont. in Prussia, and 89 per cent, in Austria. Tho collapso of tho distribution of fuel by tho Central Powers is duo to Hindcnburg's paramount demands for rollingstock, and it has caused intenso suffering, and tho revival of the herding instinct. People are living together for warmth. Many schools aro closed, : and industries stopped, and lighting is - roduccd. Tho Central Powers prin- > cipally lack meat, bread, and fats, of v which tho rations have been again rc- - duced. Germany is quelling discontent by permitting municipalities to buy fowl at abovo tho maximum prices,' distributing it at a loss, whilst hunger strikes are beaten by the mors abrupt methods. As an illustration, tho Brunswick metal workers struck for an increase in tho potato ration. Tho military authorities sentenced a hunl drod strikers to various terms of ini- , prisonmont, up to ten months, send- - mg all of military age to tho front. :> _ Austria's plight is pitiful, the amusl ing sido being the noisy altercationsJ with Hungary. The latter had stopped b tho export of maize to Austria, and 3 reduced tho export of pork and ba--3 con, whereupon Austria seized .the wliolo of tho Serbian grain harvest. Vienna's meat, broad, and vecetable supr plies are admittedly precarious. EnorI mous prices rule. The Viennese aro complaining that Berlin is still getC ting nearly half the normal meat supplies, though this is kept up by the slaughter of milch cows. The Aust'rians and Germans are promising tho public supplies from Russia. Tlio.y are cndeavouring to open a route via tho Danube, but British exports believe that little will ho available from Ukraine. !_ How Northern Russians subsist ret mains a mystery. They are apparently u supported largely by oratory and scraps [1 of food purchased at fabulous prices. - London correspondents describe their d own foraging expeditions. They aro t payitig 3s. for a candle with which to o write dispatches in a city without lis;ht r op fuel. Mr. Bnnsome paid £1 for a o poor chicken. The Bolshoviki manago s to keep a reduced bread ration poing, i- but .the plight of the Russians is ono II of the , most pitiful misery. The - "Times" corresnondont at Pctrograd f describes the Embassy and Consulate staff as half-famished. _ Tho members o are fainting at their work. The 0 French and Italians are pinched, and o aro tightening the food regulations. In " Paris a horse-flesh market has been 1 opened. The scarcity of oats ie affect

ing both the French and the German army transport. The World Scraped For Food. Neutrals are similarly suffering. Rationing is increasing everywhere. Scandinavians aro living on a card system. There liavo been severe riots in Spain and Portugal, and the Spanish women's movement has .become violent. The 6hortages in neutral countrios includo bread, meat, eggs, butter, oil, and metals. Some of the Greek islands are faiuine-strickcn. The Governments are searching the world for supplies and freight. America is taking stocks, and largely increasing the area under wheat. * Enthusiasm for food economy is general. Chicago has instituted a porkless day. Otherwise tho most notable fact is that millions of tons of produco is awaiting shipment to Europe. MAXIM GORKY WOUNDED London, January 27. A United Pre3s message from Petrograd states that Maxim Gorky, the Russian novelist, has been wounded by a stray rifle shot.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. DISTURBANCES IN SPAIN TROOPS CALLED OUT. Madrid, January 27. Troops were called out to suppress the disturbances at Barcelona. Telegraphic and telephonic communication is interrupted, and many industries have closed down—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.