The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1916. THE BLOCKADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1916. THE BLOCKADE.

If the war lasts another year one of the most important results of Roumanian intervention will be the withdrawal of her grain supply from the Central Powers. One of the neutral correspondents 7ho are regularly contributing articles to the London Times states that if the Central Powers liad been forced to rely strictly on their home resources during the past year the world would have had some experience oo r starvation 'by this time. The increasing stringency of tile blockade has had its effect, and were ,it not for the supplies which have been obtained from Roumania their food stocks would have come to an end. The export of foodstuffs from Roumjuiia to the Central Powers, Bulgaria and Turkey has been such as to produce a serious shortage in Koumania heTself. This, it will be noticed, was written before Rouinania had come into the, war. According to the writer of the same artvle. tie German harvest, which was to give everybody plenty to eat again, will return only a moderate yield, the weather having been unfavorable, and there seems to be little ground for the optimistic statements of the authorities. Until the harvest is reaped suffering will have to be undergone. There are indications that the poor children of the large towns are going hungry, their diet consisting oi potatoes and of very little, if any, sugar. It is known that diplomatists in Berlin are receiving food from foreign countries. It is certain that the soldieis at the front are being fed largely at the expense of the civil population, but even the soldiers, it appears, have had to be put on shorter rations in order that those who are to make an attack may have full rations and a good allowance of meat. At the same time, according to a neutral writer, "although many neutrals believe that the economic pressure we can exercise would be sufficient to bring the enemy to his knees, yet too much should not be expected in that direction. (Military defeat alone will bring about the collapse of the Central Powers, and :rith tbat collapse a lasting peace." ]