LARGE SCALE PICNIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1940, Page 3

LARGE SCALE PICNIC

FEEDING BRITISH TROOPS IN FRANCE

PROVISION OF VARIETY. CALORIES AND VITAMINS. \ LONDON, December 1. Feeding the British Army in France has been compared to “a picnic on a large scale.” Five hundred tons of food are landed and distributed daily between 200,000 men. On the ’ menu shipped over the Channel are 250 different items, ranging from meat and two vegetables (tinned), to cigarettesand a choice of rum or cocoa, milk/ and sugar, in dirty weather. The meat comes chiefly from the Argentine and Australia, and it is mainly beef. The soldier does not care much for mutton and lamb —even New Zealand; at least, his past experience of the way cooks have mishandled it has given him a prejudice. He has too many memories of cold, fatty, congealed mutton stew. New Zealand butter is most popular, and it is supplied regularly to troops in the Middle East. A BALANCED RATION. From the Army's viewpoint, the soldier is “fed in accordance with a rationed scale.” This is decided upon by War Office officials, with the assistance of the Medical Research Council. Every item on the menu becomes in their eyes largely a matter of calories and vitamins; the soldier must have a balanced ration, “sufficient to feed a man under any conditions in which he may be called upon to operate.” Variety is insisted upon. The days of eternal bully beef and biscuits are as dated as the muzzle loading rifle. If one type of food is not available, the soldier receives its near equivalent. If there are not fresh vegetables, he gets his tomatoes, beans, and peas from tins. If bacon is short, he receives “meat loaf,” which is made from pork with a cereal “base,” usually oatmeal, or pork and beans. BETTER THAN IN LAST WAR. There is no doubt that the food served to the soldier today is better than it was in the last war. More attention has been paid to its preparation. One of the many improvements is the replacement of the old cooker waggon, which rumbled along after the troops full of eternal stew. There is now the petrol cooker. Wherever possible, men in the trenches are served with hot. meals; the food is kept heated by being placed in haybox containers. “Tommy cookers” are also supplied .Thej l - burn solidified, smokeless alcoholic fuel, and are most useful for warming the inner man. Where possible, the ration is supplemented with fresh vegetables and eggs. Beef is mainly frozen, and Argentine preserved meat is preferred to Australian. It is less fatty. Two ounces'of tobacco, equal to about 50 to 60 cigarettes. and two boxes of matches are issued to each man weekly. Neat rum is issued in wintry weather, but troops who prefer it. can take cocoa, milk and sugar as an alternative. Beer is not issued as part of the Army ration, but. in common with other “supplements,’ it can be secured at canteens. i The British Army claims that, in general, the British soldier is fed more liberally and in better quality than soldiers in any other army in the world.