Ladies a Small Saucer

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 357, 26 April 1946, Page 10

Ladies a Small Saucer

HE early evening talks given over National stations by T. N. Smallwood, Chairman of the Famine Emergency Committee, show that this part of the campaign is being planned with imagination and spirit. Behind the talks is a committee faced with perplexities, and by admitting to their headaches Mr. Smallwood makes us think a little too. Sympathy for starving people asks to be translated into action, and the simple, gratifying and positive action of food parcels And money is the easiest way. Mr. Smallwood says, "Halt!" Food parcels ate extras, only. These individual tins of food are no help unless they have been saved from household rations. Food needs to be shipped mainly in bulk, economically, and to be distributed evenly; local markets must not be disorganised. It is a seemingly inglorious and negative policy of restraint that is

asked of us-restraint from our traditional over-catering and over-eating. Translated into practical terms, this policy must lead to some courageous negatives. If the invitation to the bunfight bears the usual motto, "Ladies a plate,’ ladies must be brave and take only a saucer. If jelly crystals are put into the overseas parcel, those jelly crystals must have already been denied to the family birthday party. It is a new technique, and one in which we have had little practice. Fats and meat are urgently needed. Households are asked to save butter and meat coupons and the *equivalent of this saving will be shipped overseas. Official cards are being distributed and on to these the spare coupons are to be pasted. Here, like the artist, Mr. Smallwood slipped in a lightning touch to remind us that wheat also is desperately scarce: "Don’t use flour paste for this."