CAN A FOOD DICTATOR DICTATE?

Taranaki Daily News, 2 November 1916, Page 7

CAN A FOOD DICTATOR DICTATE?

VON BATOCKI WARNS THE PINCHED EMPIRE. | Herr von Batocki, the Kaiser's new "food, dictator" (who, by the way, objects to the phrase "food dictatorship") has, according to a Router wire through Amsterdam, warned the Reichstag not to expect any sudden change or improvement of conditions. He said that of.'special-importance was the close co-operation of the new Board with the authorities of the Federal States, the. army, and the civil adminis■tration. "Great difficulties," he added, "are arising out of the relations of the Federal States. From Wurtcmberg. menacing letters have reached me protesting against the sucking dry of Wurtemburg by Prussia. Without the ready co-oper-ation of the authorities of the Federal Stater, their organisations and the entire population iuv work cannot be successful." "IT' SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN." In his speech before the Budget Committee of the Reichstag, Herr you Batocki said: "The army must first be provided for, and only then can the civil population be considered. "It should not be forgotten that the bad harvest of 1914 and the still worse one of last year were the cause of the situation which we deplore to-day." [Note—lt should not be forgotten in this country that up to a few weeks ago we were officially assured in German publications that the cereal harvest in the Central Empires was a good average one, arid that the potato crop was one of extreme abundance. One or two inferences are clear: That the Government desired to lull the people into a false idea of plenty, or that the statistical departments muddled the whole affair. Perhaps both.] WILL HANS STARVE TO FEED. WILHELMi. This plaint from Wurtombcvg (writes a Daily Chronicle correspondent) only expresses in drastic fashion what all the other German States feel with regard to Prussia. In the Bavarian Diet the other day members complained of 'Prussian food egotism," and of the attempts which the Berlin Government were making to induce Bavarian foodgrowers to send their stuff to Berlin. In Saxony the same feeling prevails, and it is clear that Herr von Batocki's main difficulty will be to persuade the Bavarian, the Hessian, the Badenser, and the others that their main duty now is to feed Prussia. It will not be an easy task. The same disinclination is shown in towns to consent to any policy calculated to deprive them- of their available food supplies, and the disinclination is all the greater where the suspicion .arises that the supplies are intended for Berlin. If there is one city more than another which the average German of the South and West loathes it is Berlin; and the prospect of depleting the stores of his own town in order that Berlin may escape starvation is not attractive. In Eisenach, for example, the town council have issued an order forbidding the exportation from the district of the following foodstuffs: All kinds of meat, sausage, poultry, fish, fats and oils, groceries, soap and soap powders, cheese, eggs, baked wares, tarts, fruit-cakes and vegetables. The Berlin Tagcblatt, with some pertinence; comments on this as follows: "People speak of England's starvation war against us, but this German starvation war against the large towns is at least as worthy of condemnation. TIRPITZ AS FOOD DICTATOR, Maxmillian Harden's nominee for the post of "food dictator" in Germany was —von Tirpitz! He drew in the "Zukunft" a very alarming picture of the state of things in Germany, and declares that the shortage of foodstuffs threatens to rob Germany of the fruits of all her glorious achievements. But it is, of course, merely organisation that is required. "Every mistake that it was possible to commit has been committed. The pious will see in this heaven's revenge for the arrogance which boasts of 'our incomparable power of organisation.' " All would go well (Harden argued) with von Tirpitz as dictator. "His is a name which begets confidence; a brain which must not be suffered to make holiday while the Empire is in need; an immovable will, more than equal to the task of making farmers and cattle-deal-ers, corn-barons and coal-barons toe the line in equality of patriotic duty." AS SEEN FROM ACROSS BALTIC. Harden's picture of conditions in Germany is in very glaring contradiction to that'drawn by'a Swedish professor, Gustav Cassel, who, at the invitation of the Gorman Government, bar. been playing tho part of an economic Svcn I-ledin, and, after visiting Germany, has declared, in a book called "Germany's Economic Power of Resistance," that the Fatherland is not at all seriously incommoded by economic pressure of every sort. Professor Cassel falls into the mistake of all official panegyrists—he tries to prove too much. He denies the existence of ■troubles which not only Harden, but scores of other German witnesses, declare to be acute.