Thursday 12 October 2017

Strict Economy, Or Rations


From the Whitby Gazette, 12th October 1917.

STRICT ECONOMY, OR RATIONS.
Eat Less Bread.
Coffee Instead of Tea.

The present position of the problem of national food supply is that compulsory rationing is the only alternative to further rigorous economy of food by all classes of the people.

Inquiries at the Ministry of Food showed that if compulsory rationing were decided on, the system of sugar rationing which is to come into force at the end of the year will probably be the basis of the compulsory scheme.  "The nucleus of the organisation for carrying it through already exists in the load Food Control Committees," it was stated.

“'It was calculated originally that it would take three mouths to set up a completed scheme of rationing.  That is about the time the sugar scheme will have taken.

“Present food supplies may seem sufficient excepting in two or three instances, but it is not so much the present as the future which demands attention and compels a greater economy forthwith. In the case of bread, notwithstanding the cheapening of the loaf, we must all remember how long our stocks of breadstuffs have to last.  Everybody must eat less bread.

"Bacon is short now, and may remain so for two or three months yet, when larger supplies will probably arrive from America.  There is a shortage of tea, relief from which will come as the heavier importations which are expected begin to arrive.  In the mean-time people can economise with existing stocks drinking a greater proportion of coffee, which just now is plentiful.

“Meat is ample for present wants, but here again economy should be practised for the sake of the future.  Indeed, there is no foodstuff in which the nation ought not to economise, seeing that so large a bulk of its food must be brought over-seas and that tonnage is so scarce.  Only by economy in eating and by saving all the food possible will compulsory rationing be avoided."

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