THE ECONOMIC PINCH.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 June 1916, Page 3

THE ECONOMIC PINCH.

TELLS ON TEUTON. BRITISH BLOCKADE HAS BECOME INTOLERABLY SEVERE. London, May 12. The Daily Chronicle says:—"All the news from Germany indicates that the British blockade is likely to prove a decisive factor in the war. The economic pinch has hecomc intolerably severe. The masses of the people are half-starved, particularly in the towns. Middleclasses and rich are suffering greatly. "Confirmation of this state of affairs is not only to be gleaned from the German press, despite the censorship, hut neutval diplomats in Germany and neutral visitors to that country all bring back the same story of an unfed population, stagnant industry, universal warweariness and desperate yearning for peace.

"Diplomats in Berlin have begged to be allowed to import their own food. Some of them have got milk for their children, especially from Denmark and Holland.

'■■ Rich women are taking their children to Holland to get enough milk for tlicm.

Other signs that the country is in extremes are: Recent failure of the Berlin bread rationing; the advance in the price of potatoes, although the ration is grotesquely insufficient, showing the critical shortage; huge jumps in the price of beef, veal and mutton; and, above all, the approaching exhaustion of .ill edible fats, including butter, margarine, lard and every sort of oil and fat.'