ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1691, 27 March 1917, Page 1

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.

There are one or two notes from correspondents of the Daily Telegraph that will hear quotation just now as showing the economic condition of enemy countries. Greater Berlin, according to the Rotterdam correspondent, began the year with reduced rations, approaching semistarvation limit. The allowance of potatoes per week was 51b,, and under the new arrangements this must include the weight of potatoes contained in hotel or restaurant dishes, for which a card had to be tendered. Two pounds of turnips completed the vegetable rations for the week. Butter was reduced to the exiguous quantity of fifty grammes a week (less than two ounces), supplemented by thirty grammes (one ounce) of margarine. These reductions coincided with an egg famine. The official announcement says: “We shall not be in a good position as regards eggs in the New Year. Supplies are so short that it cannot even be contemplated to continue the small allowance the population of Berlin have had up to now. For the present eggs will only be allowed to sick persons. Probably these conditions will continue until the middle of February.” Another message deals with the Austrian conditions, as revealed by travellers in Switzerland. “Travellers who h'ave just reached Switzerland state that the aspect of the population in some towns and country districts is pitiable,” it runs: “Every other person one meets looks worried, haggard and pale, and the common remark is: ‘we arc starving.’ The price of certain articles is prohibitive for the vast majority, even if they could be had. Ham at Vienna now costs Ids a pound, beef, lard and mutton, from (Is to 7s. But this is only when these articles arc to be had. There are cases where people have to wait two weeks before their turn comes to have a small portion of meat. All the provisions are sold out before eight o’clock in the morning. It now appears also that Austria has received nothing from Koumania, and the quantity of meal, potatoes, rice, sugar and corn collected by the German foraging troops is admitted to have been insignificant.”