FIRST SHIPS ARRIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26633, 2 December 1947, Page 4

FIRST SHIPS ARRIVE

CHRISTMAS FOOD FOR BRITAIN ONLY FRACTION OF NEEDS For the Daily Times By Harvey Blanks LONDON, Nov. 21. The first of the Christmas food fleets is now unloading at London docks. Ships will be arriving right up to Christmas, but it may not be possible to distribute late cargoes until after the holidays. Oranges and tangerines form most of the first cargo, and dates, grapefruit, and lemons are to follow. But altogether they will satisfy only a fraction of the huge demand. Customers will probably be rationed to one pound of oranges per ration book. Fewer than 1,250,000 turkeys will be imported this Christmas by the Ministry of Food, to be sold at controlled prices. But thousands of domestic birds will reach British ovens through the ever-spreading black market. They will probably cost 7gns to lOgns each. Already farmers are demanding 6s 6d and 7s per lb for their birds, and prices will inevitably rise.

“American ” Christmas Cakes

A famous Manhattan store, Gimbels’s, has just completed arrangements with the Ministry of Food and the famous British catering firm of Lyons to enable Americans to have rich fruit Christmas cakes and chocolate biscuits delivered free to families in Britain. Americans place their orders with Gimbels’s, paying in dollars. The orders are air-mailed to Lyons, where the cakes are baked from ingredients allocated for export, Lyons undertake delivery. , Under this plan, dollars are earned and shipping is- saved, for otherwise the food would be exported to America and then sent hack to Britain in the form of gift parcels. The New York Times last week carried a full-page advertisement announcing the scheme.