FOOD IN FRANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1942, Page 4

FOOD IN FRANCE

MANY DIFFICULTIES ARISE. CLOTHES BEING RATIONED. British civilian prisoners who were interned at Drancy, to the east of Paris, have been transferred to the internment camp at St. Denis, to the immediate north of Paris, at La Grande Caserne camp. In this camp there are now approximately 2700 internees, according to a circular just issued by the Committee for British Subjects Evacuated from France. British subjects residing in the departments, or counties, of the Bouches-du-Rhone,’ Var and Alpes Maritimes, had been notified at the end of last June that they were to leave these departments before July 3. The order was subsequently rescinded, but not before many had removed inland from the Mediterranean seaboard. A former member of the British Colony in Paris, who left France on August 4 this year, supplied the committee with interesting details of life in unfortunate France. Until February, 1941, he said, food supplies were normal, but from that date many difficulties arose. Meat was rationed at 90 grammes (about 3 ounces) a week. Oil and fats were unobtaintable for periods of more than a month. Potatoes were not to be had for six months. Wine, said the informant, is now unofficially rationed and limited' to one glass per meal. Milk and chocolate are given in limited quantities to children and old people only. Butter, tea and coffee are luxuries not to be had. Most foodstuffs, though rationed, are unobtainable. Clothes are rationed. Two old suits must be surrendered before one is able to purchase a new suit, and two old overcoats are required for one new one purchased. The mayor of one locality had applications for 40 pairs of shoes, but had only six.' These special shoes have wooden soles and heels. Thccheapest cost 165 francs a pair, tfie better qualities 300 francs a pair (19s to 35s approximately at pre-war rates). Underclothing, stockings, pins and needles are impossible to obtain even with coupons. Gas is rationed and is turned on only during four or five hours of the day, at meal times. One can obtain 50 kilogrammes (just under 1 cwt.) of coal per month, but only if orfe is without gas. Soap is rationed, and is obtainable only in small quantities.

People in unoccupied France, the informant found, were more divided in opinion than those in occupied territory. He attributed this to people in unoccupied territory not coming in direct contact with the Germans. Eighty per cent of the population he declares definitely pro-British in occupied territory, and 65 per cent in unoccupied France.