FOOD FOR GERMANY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 14 October 1942, Page 3

FOOD FOR GERMANY

PORTUGUESE GO HUNGRY l ilt TRIALS OF M l TRAI l I V i Although the people of Portugal are j I poverty stricken and hardly ever get i ! enough to eat. it is possible to obtain I I better and a more diverse variety of j j loods in Lisbon than in any other city j in Europe, reports Louis Shepard in j "The Christian Science Monitor." Unlike oven Switzerland and Sweden, it 1 has not yet been considered necessary j i to ration foods in Portugal ! To maintain its neutrality, however. | j Portugal cannot refuse to sell foods to Germany and sometimes to Spain A | correspondent of the German news | agency D.N.B in Lisbon once told me. "Why should Germany invade Por--1 tugalV We can buy almost anything wanted from the Portuguese, and what we cannot buy legally is smuggled over i the border to Spain without great difficulty and is bought there." There is a shortage of beef and veal throughout the country although ships j arrive regularly from the Argentine with beef, and Portuguese merchantmen come up from the colonies loaded with assorted meats It is common knowledge that about 50 per cent, of the meat and the best fisli and fruits ! in the country are smuggled across the ; frontier to Spain and sold to German agents there SARDINE PRICES i But it is not always necessary to | : smuggle foods to Germany. A short j while ago the British Government en- | tered into an agreement with Portu- | guese sardine packers whereby England I would supply Portugal with tin plate ! lor sardine cans in return for a per- ■ centage of the sardine output. The i j Germans learned of this, however, and ; by applying pressure, the packers, in ■ addition to supplying England with sari dines, were forced to ship a percentage ! of Portugal’s sardine stock to Germany. | This forced the price of tinned fish to I rise beyond the reach of most Portu- ! guese people. ■ Bacalhao, or dried codfish, the nai tional dish of Portugal, is now unob- ! tainable because Portuguese fishing 1 ; smacks are unable to sail to the war- • j waters of the north. A small 1 amount of cod? at high prices, is nowshipped to Portugal by Germany. This has caused a return to simpler ■ diets. The people consume chiefly sar- ! dines, some vegetables, and occasion- | ally rabbit. ' 1 Throughout Portugal, at all hours of i the day and night, the odor of smok1j mg sardines permeates the air. Be- . j cause most families can no longer af- ■ ; tord to buy tinned sardines, the fish [ | are bought fresh and the housewife i smokes them herself. TYPICAL MEAL Before the sardines are served they • I are usually fried in olive oil and. with some bread, a meal is had Occasionally some potatoes may be added to the ■ meal and. rarely, a leafy vegetable. This, however, is the meal of a family I supported by a man with a regular in--1 I come, for instance, a policeman. The • j position of policeman in Lisbon is gen- - j orally considered to be a good one. ' | Although the earth of Southern Por- ■ | tugal is yellow in colour, dry to the i , touch, and appears to be barren, many , : hundreds of acres of olive, fig. almond . i and cork trees are grown throughout | the section. Part of the crop, especial- ’ ! ly cork, which is valuable in our war ! industries, is shipped to the Uitited ! States and other countries. ; The war has forced Portugal to de- ” i pend more and more upon its own ships 1 I to import sufficient foods and raw | materials for its people. A severe ' strain has been placed on the small t merchant marine for the colonies of r ! the Portuguese Empire encircle the I J globe Freighters have been torpedoed , in the South Atlantic, especially off the ( , coast of Morocco, and fishermen are ! afraid to sail far from their bases on the mainland. Few foreign ships touch 1 Portuguese ports HIGH PASSAGE RATES Hundreds of refugees still arrive in l Lisbon seeking passage for the United , States. So scarce is space on Portuguese vessels that rates may now be as high as 1000 dollars for a dormitory ( i mattress. ; i A little ship like the Guine, about ? 8000 tons, normally carried a capacity 1 | load of 75 passengers to the Mozambique port of Loureneo Marques. The . ; passengers rarely paid more than 100 . dollars for the month’s voyage. Now. however, the Guine i.- in tin* North r ‘ Atlantic service and carries up to 450 passengers, each oi whom pays from • j 300 to 600 dollars for passage from 1 Lisbon to New York. ’ • I returned from Europe aboard a • Portuguese refugee ship Although • : crowded, conditions approximated those - j aboard an Army transport. Bunks were i I built into the hold and meals were . ! served in three shifts. I I Troops are constantly being shipped _ 1 from Portugal to the colonies The ’ i Army owns no transport and the Navy ’ | owns only one. which is used as a hos- ’ j pita] ship with the fishing fleets. The [ I Government, therefore, has to charter ■ ; ships to carry troops to the Azores. ' j Madeira, and lo colonies as far awav 1 as Macao in China. A few days before Japan invaded the colony of Timor, more than 1000 troops were sent from Lisbon aboard the Jao Bello to garrison the colony The Jap- • anese took the island before the arrival . of the Portuguese troops, forcing the • Jao Bello to put into the Portuguese j colony port of Mormugao in India. This i ship, therefore is an example of the : ; many that from the Portuguese point I‘ of view are wasted since they cannot s j be used for the transportation of food 3 and raw materials to Portugal. , SHIPBUILDING DIM H I 1.1 s i Portugal had ;.l\vny? commissioned ‘ ! firms in England and France and Germany to construct naval and merchant , ships Therefore it was difficult to arI i range tc build large ships in Lisbon , ; to augment the merchant marine. But s plants were assembled and last year y j almost every shipyard along the River Tagus had a ship on the ways. s Materials were being brought from |- England . Now. however, it is learned • : through private advices, contractors are . having difficulty procuring materials !to continue their shipbuilding pro- . I grammes y . The Junta—Portuguese Maritime I Commission —has reduced the number a of ships permitted to carry refugees to the Americas and has returned some of the liners to the colonial service. . . Portugal was evidently even unable to j spare a ship to carry American citis ! zens to New York in exchange for Axis . \ nationals, necessitating the chartering i j of the Swedish liner Drottningholm. I j Portugal prides itself on being one ■ ol the great maritime nations of the i ! world and Portuguese are determined j their their ships will continue to xai 1 i i the seas ns long as they possibly can in ! spite of the war.