INSUFFICIENT FOOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26640, 10 December 1947, Page 5

INSUFFICIENT FOOD

COMPLAINTS BY BRITISH UNIVERSITIES APPEAL TO FOOD MINISTRY N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 9. Complaints of insufficient food by students of a number of the larger universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have led the university authorities to request the Ministry of Food to discuss the situation with them. The vice-chancellor of Oxford, Dr W. T. S. Stallybrass, said that the feeding of students at all Oxford colleges was “ appalling, and much worse than at any time during the war,” and that the cut in the: potato ration appears to have brought matters to a head. Earlier in the year when the university authorities complained to the Ministry of Food that allocations made to them under their catering licences were insufficient, the Ministry refused to intervene, claiming that the amount of food issued was sufficient to provide two main meals a day. Since the potato ration was reduced, however, further and more urgent representations; have been made, and the Ministry has agreed to review the matter.

At both Oxford and Cambridge it is claimed that students living in lodgings are going' on very short commons, and that unless they have money to supplement their meals by eating in restaurants some of them are going . hungry. At both universities it is stated that it is a common practice for students to eat in the hall and then rush out to join the nearest queue at a cheap restaurant. This practice does not endear them to the townspeople. .“These youngsters are at a hungry age,” said a bursary at one of the universities. “ They work hard and play hard. Many of them who have been recently demobilised are accustomed to service rations. When they come here they find themselves on short rations.” For the first time in its history, a recent issue of the Oxford University magazine, Cherwell, contains a cookery recipe under the slogan: “ Eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow we diet.’”