THIN GERMANS.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 November 1918, Page 2

THIN GERMANS.

Many reports concerning the food situation in Germany have been published, but leave the public quite unconvinced as to the actual conditions. Now we have the testimony the “Times” of Mr. Davis, formerly the Kaiser’s, dentist, and his evidence is of more value than that of the mere traveller, who sees only what goes on in hotels. Mr. Davis tells of his own r family experiences. / Although the Government (he says) decreed a high fine and imprisonment as punishment for 'buying or selling anything which had been commandeered, speculators sprang up on every side, and people bragged openly of what they had stored away. Every patient who came into my office bragged about some forbidden article of food which he or she had purchased, and complained of the awful price exacted for it. ’ The worst deprivation was in the lack of fats. The’people showed it very plainly. One seldom saw a fat man or a fat woman, although before the war fatness was almost characteristic of the German physique.'lndeed, I saw a rather stout woman being followed by at least 20 boys, who were jeering at her and making slurring remarks about the manner in which she had retained her avoirdupois. A tat person in Germany to-day is regarded with suspicion.