FOOD RESERVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 July 1940, Page 3

FOOD RESERVES

BIG STOCKS BUILT UP IN BRITAIN RATIONS MAY BE INCREASED DURING WINTER. MILK SUPPLY FOR ALL CHILDREN. (British Oftiicial Wireless.) RUGBY, July 18. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minsitry of Food. Mr R. J. Boothby, opened a debate in the House of Commons on the work of his department which, he said, was an enormous business undertaking, with trading accounts amounting to nearly £600.000.000 yearly. The Ministry controlled food imports, it controlled all essential home-produced foodstuffs, and it rationed the distribution where necessary and regulated food prices. On the important subject of food I stocks, he made several significant I statements. He said that a substantial part of the wheat reserve had been | turned into flour stocks and these were , now sufficient for Britain to carry on ; for many months, even in the unfortunate, but unexpected, event of heavy losses at sea. The command of the sea. which had been maintained by the Navy since the outbreak of war, had enabled stocks to be built up of every essential commodity to such a point that even if there should be future delays in the arrival of ships the nation need have no serious anxiety. Dealing with the recently-introduced tea ration, Mr Boothby said that he could hold out hope that if. as was confidently expected, the enemy's threatening attack in the next two or three months were defeated, the supply position would be such as to enable the Ministry to increase the distribution of tea. The considerations affect- j ed sugar and fats. In those cases, too. I rations could be increased during the j winter. ; He went on to explain the nutrition- [ al aspects of his department's policy. He claimed for the Ministry’s new milk scheme—under which milk will be available at specially-reduced rates or free, where the means of recipients justify it. to expectant or nursing mothers and to children under five—that, in conjunction with the old milk-in-the-schools scheme, it was one of the most notable measures of social re- j form in recent times, assuring as it | does for every child from before birth [ to adolescence a liberal supply of a i most valuable article of food. CALCIUM SALT IN BREAD. | Mr Boothby discussed white flour; supplies and the inclusion in the loaf of a small ingredient of calcium salt.'. When these plans were matured, the'i public would have the choice of forti- I fled white bread or wholemeal bread I at the same price. This was an unprecedented and indeed revolutionary step from the nutritional point of view. “It will certainly attract world-wide attention and in conjunction with the national milk scheme will lay the foundation of a nutrition policy which will not only have a permanently beneficial effect on the health of the people, but will be hailed by scientists all over the world as a great advance on anything hitherto achieved in this / field by any other country,” he said. 1 Other matters touched by' Mr I Boothby appertaining rather to social policy were plans for communal feeding, starting with factory workers, and subsidisation with a view to keeping down the cost of living, for whjch the department was incurring in respect of flour, bread, home-produced meat, and bacon an expenditure of about £52,000.000 a year. For the Labour Party Mr J. R. Clynes, who was Minister of Food in the last war, said Lord Woolton had obtained the confidence of the nation, and stated that he could find no opening for controversy in the main activities of Lord Woolton's department.