SHORT RATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 May 1916, Page 8

SHORT RATIONS.

, TIGHTENING GERMANY'S BELT. (By ••'Criticus,'' in Dunedin Star). This war has witnessed many strange innovations. All the contending nations have Ministers of Munitions, and on Saturday came an unofficial assertion that the British Government intend to form an Air Ministry, with Lord Gurzon at its head. The most revolutionary step the war has yet seen,, however, is contained in the semi-official announcement from Berlin that Ilerr Hertling, Bavarian Prime Minister, has been appointed Imperial Minister for Rations. If this is true, it probably means that the German Government are going to take over the organisation and distribution of the whole of the nation's food supplies. Hitherto the distribution of food has been left mainly to the usual agencies .vhich control the matter in time of peace, and there has been little interference beyond the establishment of bread tickets and of soup kitchens to aid the poor. A whole nation on rations is a phenomenon without precedent in history, unless the Egyptians under the rule of Joseph can be cited as an example. Moreover, Germany is not only a nation, but an exceptionally great nation. The work of administering *hc food supplies of (15,000,000 people Will be a titanic experiment in social organisation.

Germany is gradually drifting into the position of a besieged eity. A neutral who has arrived at Amsterdam itom Berlin describes a great food riot withing hearing of the Kaiser's palace. The people who had congregated to buy meat at the famous Biesold stores found them closed and placarded with the notice "Sold out." They battered in the doors and windows, however, and found that the stores were well stocked with meat, which they promptly looted, but the police arrived and drove -them off by a charge. Other riots subsequently broke out in'various parts of the city. With tood constantly becoming scarcer and prices steadily rising, these things are bound to recur if 'the distribution of food is left in the hands of private individuals. Tlic temptation to demand high prices is irresistible, and that means semi-starvation for the poor. Although we shall be very foolish if we look for the collapse of Germany as the result of scarcity of food, yet that scarcity may have a very powerful influence on the future of the war. Scarcity of food will kill out whatever enthusiasm for the war still remains, and if it leads to short rations for the troops, will impair their fighting efficiency An underfed soldier is deficient in energy and dash. The prevalence of rioting, moreover, with tlie consciousness that matters are likely to grow steadily worse in the future, is likely to affect strategy by inducing- the Germans to undertake desperate enterprises in. the hope of gaining a decisive success before conditions become intolerable. Nevertheless, ■many will fight as a besieged city fights in tiie Inst resort, and if the food supplies of a city can be pooled and distributed by a central authority, there sr-cms no reason why the same thing should not be done in the ease of a nation, ft is merely a substantially similar problem of organisation on a larger scale. A later cable contains the story of the shooting down of 300 people with machine-guns during a food riot.