RATIONS IN BRITAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1918, Page 6

RATIONS IN BRITAIN.

INAUGURATION OF SCHEME. FOOD CARDS FOR ROYALTY. xifter three and a-lialf years of war, compulsory rationing of food came into operation on February 25 in an area which included London and the Home Counties, and has a population of over 10,000,000 people. On March 25 rationing of meat was to have beconia general throughout England, and this month there is to be a national rationing scheme which can be applied as the necessity arises to any staple foodstuff. When first the compulsory regulation of the distribution and consumption of food was urged by those who realised how vital a part the food question would play in determining the issues of the war many objections were raised by officials and by others who did not like compulsory measures. The scarcity of fats, the fall in the meat supplies, jnd the scandal of the food queues swept away the opposition, and rationing began with the goodwill of the great majority of the nation and the full approval of organised Labor. In London and the Home Counties a start was made with meat, butter and margarine. Tlio Home Counties as defined for the purposes of the scheme wore Middlesex, Herts, Essex. Kent. Surrey and Sussex. From February "25. the weekly consumption of the rationed food's was limited to the following quantities for each person:— 4oz of butter or margarine. Fresh beef, mutton, lamb, or pork to the value of Is 3d, and about soz of meat other than butchers' meat. The onlv variation of these rations •.viis that for children under the age of 10 the quantity of meat was halved. It is nroposod at a later stajre to make an additional allowance of meat to men engaged on heavy industrial work. The King and Queen received their food cards from the Westminster Food Control Committee, and everyone at Buckingham Palace was to fbe "on rations."

DIRECTION TO THE PUBLTC. The following points were published as "Things to Remember," when rationl iii-T came into force: —■ "You should have two cards, a food card and a meat card- Take your food card to the Ibutcher or grocer when you want to buy fresh meat or bacon"You can buy butter, margarine, and butdhers' meat only from the retailers with whom your card 9 are registered. "Squares on the food card or coupons on the meat card which have not been used in the proper week cannot be used later without the permission of the Food office. If the retailer cannot supply the full ration in any week he may not, without permission, make it up in the next- week. "You must not tear off meat coupons yourself. This duty rests with the retailer. 'Only three coupons each week of ft meat card can he used for butchers' meat. The fourth or any of the coupons can 'be used to Ibuv bacon, tinned meats, poultry, and game, and these things can be bought at any shop. '•You cannot hare a meat meal at a restaurant, canteen, or eating-house without giving up a meat coupon or half a coupon. You can have butter or margfirinfe on a restaurant, however, without producing your food card. "Tf you have not yet received your ration carls, emergency cards may be obtained from your local Food Committee." 1 RESULT OF THE FIRST WEEK. In summing-up the first week's working of the scheme, Lord Rhondda, the Food Controller, said: —"It is too early to express a definite opinion as to the success of our experiment in compulsory rationing. So far a? is known, however, the gr2.it bulk of the population of nearly ten millions affected by the scheme have been able under it to secure their fair share of supplies, and a marked improvement has already been effected in the distribution of meat. The experience of the first week encourages me to hope that by March 25 we shall have established a system that will work satisfactorily over the whole of the United Kingdom. Even compulsory rationing must be elastic, and I have no illusions that, by a stroke of the pen, I can create in a day or a week a hard and fast plan of rationing that will prove infallible. lam satisfied, however, that, with the continued good-will of the public, we can surmount all the difficulties in the way of an equitable distribution of food. I am, and always have been, convinced that so long as the people of this country know that any system of rationing we may introduce will be fair to all classes they will cheerfully accept the necessary food restrictions."