CHOCOLATE IN DEMAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1940, Page 6

CHOCOLATE IN DEMAND

ENGLAND EATS MORE IN WARTIME. Demand for chocolate has increased by 50 per cent since the outbreak of war. and some British factories are in production night and day to provide for fighting' men and civilians. The War Office has placed exceptionally big orders, for a hermetically scaled slab of chocolate is included in the "iron rations" of every soldier and airman in Britain's ever-increasing armies. And to ensure against any possible shortage, the Government has bought the whole of the Gold Coast (West Africa) crop, more than half the world’s output, and set up a Cocoa Supply. Only in an extremity may a soldier open his “iron rations." but ordinary chocolate is bought in huge quantities in Army canteens in France and at home. The troops prefer it to any other form of sweet or confectionery, and a single canteen in one of the Army Commands in England places a routine order for 43.200 twopenny bars of milk chocolate and 14.400 bars of plain, apart from more fancy items suitable as a gift for "the girl friends."

Civilians, particularly the 2.350.000 civil defence workers, are eating more chocolate, because of its nourishment value. Several British manufacturers now have factories in Australia. New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa, to meet local demands in the Empire. Supplies for India go direct from Britain. British firms produced £7,088 - 000 worth of chocolate in bars and blocks alone in 1935. the last year in which a complete census was taken. Tito figure is now considerably increased.