TIIK FOOD SUPPLY OP OP 11 ALLIES 



631 



States. The celebrated Professor 

 Eichet was a member at the opening 

 meeting in Paris but was replaced bv 

 T^anglois. and at the TiOndon meeting 

 Pagliani was replaced by Mciiozzi. 



Before the Commission was called 

 together we had an opportunity to 

 study the conditions as they existed in 

 Britain. The Eoyal Society of London 

 had established a Food Committee 

 under the chairmanship of Starling, 

 professor of physiology of the Uni- 

 versity of London. To this Committee 

 came T. B. Wood, professor of agri- 

 culture in the University of Cam- 

 bridge; Gowland Hopkins, of the same 

 college; Xoel Paton, of Glasgow; Hal- 

 liburton, Hill, Sir Henry Thompson, 

 Hardy, secretary of the Eoyal Society, 

 and many others, all men whom we had 

 known in happier years. This Com- 

 mittee had worked with great ability 

 upon the various problems connected 

 with the food situation, and their judg- 

 ment had on various occasions deter- 

 mined the policy of the Ministry of 

 Food under Lord Rhondda. It is only 

 justice to say that the principles 

 evolved by the Eoyal Society Food 

 Committee were in their essence the 

 fundamentals which the Interallied 

 Scientific Food Commission adopted. 



The food situation in Britain was 

 quite different from that which existed 

 before the war. Meat, fat, and sugar 

 were all rationed, rich and poor alike 

 receiving the same amounts. The 

 quantities of these materials which 

 were available were only one half their 

 consumption before the war. The 

 quantity of meat which was allowed to 

 the civilian population of England and 

 Scotland last winter was about the 

 same in amount as that given to the 

 inmates of the poorhouse in Helsing- 

 fors, Finland, in 1910. The quantity 

 of fat in the diet was not far from the 

 amount allowed in Voit's celebrated 

 diet for a poor laboring man. The 

 reduction in the quantities of meat, 

 fat, and sugar amounted in value to 



the elimination from the diet list of 

 one fifth of all the foods available be- 

 fore the war. To compensate for this, 

 intensive gardening had produced a 

 iKuiuliriil crop of potatoes, and arti- 

 chokes liad been grown in waste places 

 to add to the food supply, but more 

 than anything else, wheat from Amer- 

 ica added to the bread supply. The 

 consumption of bread grains had risen 

 from nine ounces per capita daily to 

 nineteen ounces per capita. 



Bread was not rationed, although 

 plans were in readiness so that in case 

 of necessity, that is in case the German 

 submarine menace should actually be- 

 come converted into an efficient block- 

 ade, it could have been rationed at a 

 moment's notice. Fortunately, the 

 British fleet held the sea, for Britain 

 can raise at best only half enough food 

 to support her population. It was the 

 general political policy of the govern- 

 ment to make bread freeW available to 

 all classes of the people. It was sub- 

 sidized by the government so that flour, 

 which could be made into bread, cost 

 much less than corn, which was used 

 for chicken feed. No one would eat 

 to excess of the dark-colored war 

 bread of which there was some com- 

 plaint. Parenthetically it may be stated 

 that there is always complaint about 

 food, no matter what the condition of 

 life. In general, food priority followed 

 these lines : 1, the fighting forces ; 2, 

 the munition workers ; 3, children. 



We visited the Woolwich Arsenal, 

 located in a fenced enclosure ten miles 

 in circumference and employing 110,- 

 000 workers, of which 25,000 were 

 women. The workers were fed in can- 

 teens managed and run by patriotic 

 women. The food was good, plentiful 

 and cheap, and the money paid for the 

 food covered all overhead charges. 

 Great ovens held piping hot potatoes, 

 and vegetable pies were in high de- 

 mand. The workmen preferred to 

 share their meat rations with their 

 families on Sundays and lived very 



