SHORT COMMONS AND HEALTH

Southland Times, Issue 24824, 17 August 1942, Page 4

SHORT COMMONS AND HEALTH

“I have never felt better in my life and I believe this is due to the short commons I had while I was a prisoner of war in Italy. I think that we New Zealanders all eat too much,” said Lieutenant-Colonel A. A. Tennent, in the course of an address at a meeting of next of kin of prisoners of war held in the Y.M.C.A. institution on Saturday afternoon. Lieutenant-Colonel Tennent said that some of the food served in the Italian prison camp was curious. There was a substitute coffee made from burnt acorns or burnt maize. However, it was a drink and it was hot. The cheese, too, was curious stuff. Tjiey were told it was made from ewe’s milk or goat’s milk. It was not equal in quality to New Zealand cheese. Fats were almost unprocurable because the Germans had seized them to make glycerine, which was necessary for high explosives. “It is curious to think that a pound of lard contains the ingredients of the most deadly explosives known to man,” Lieutenant-Colonel Torment said. He added that the fiiet at an Italian prison camp was not without its compensations. The men were often served two apples or two oranges at a meal, which was a more generous allowance of fruit than that to which the New Zealander was generally accustomed.