HUNGARY'S FOOD STRAITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1916, Page 6

HUNGARY'S FOOD STRAITS.

MEAT AND PAT SHORTAGE. London, November 14. Yesterday was the first meatless and fatless day in Hungary, and this seems to he viewed as the most important event that has yet happened in connection with the "war (writes a Budapesth correspondent, under date September •26). The majority of the newspapers have leading articles on the subject. As a matter of fact, the people at home and the soldiers at the front are much more concerned about the domestic problems of the country than in anything else at the'present time, and the conversation 0/ men and women in almost every station in life /uns exclusively on the food problem. The fatless day s in Hungary not only mean'o thai there is no fat to be had at iJie shops on that day, but also that the restaurants cannot supply anything cooked in fat or oil. The consequence i 3 tha', the most impossible and varied menus are found in all the eating houses. Hungarian or even German evoking without fat is inconceivable, for even tlr. vegetables are boiled in stock, and no.';ody can endure vegetables boiled in plain water. Chsese and boiled potatoes, boiled fish for the wealthy, and corns;u"'s an naturel were the principal dishes on Monday, and many people went hungry rather than put up with such a diet. The majority of the restaurant customers dined off pastries and cheese. The question of fat and oil is a very grave one During the lunch hours and jn the evening police inspectors visit tile restaurants and cafes, in spect the kitchens, look into the pots, and if there is the slightest suspicion of the presence of fat anywhere the proprietor is called to account at once. Three such days weekly, one of them entirely without fat, two of them irithout meat and even fish, is too much for the people here, and complaints are daily become more audible.

The Az'list, in a leading article un the food troubles, writes quite an e.egy. on the woes of the town people, recalling the happy days when women v.-cne to the marketj and returned in hah-an-hour with their shopping baskets 'flail of the freshest meat and vegetables." "To-day,"' continues the writer, "our women go to market early in the morning, some of them at five o'clock, in quest of liecesaries, and they return at ten without anything, their satchel empty, their eyes full of tears, Happy is she who _sueceeds in securing a fewsmall potatoes and half-rotten tomatoes for the hungry children at home."'