It will be too late then to think of remedial measures. 

 Whatever must be done to prevent disaster or to relieve 

 it of its worst terrors and make it bearable must be done 

 now. Food cannot be created in a day or a week the 

 way coal can be dug out of the earth or oil drawn from 

 the wells. Meat and wheat, butter, fruit, vegetables, all 

 must be prepared in anticipation many months before- 

 hand, or years beforehand in the case of cattle. At first 

 when the war broke out these economic results of the 

 war were not clearly apprehended. Military require- 

 ments necessarily came before everything else. It was 

 vaguely supposed that, so far as the food supply in these 

 islands was concerned, it simply depended on keeping 

 the trade routes open ; a few weeks would rid the seven 

 seas of enemy cruisers : and then we could draw upon 

 the world for our granary as usual. Well, we can draw 

 upon the world and prices are rising. It is impossible 

 in the modern world, where countries are economically 

 interdependent, to shelter people in one nation from a 

 commotion which rages fiercely among neighbouring 

 nations. Prices rise in harmony everywhere, and when 

 there is competition over a continent and a shortage of 

 supply, no country, however open its ports, can expect 

 to live as usual. The question of food supply and food 

 prices is further complicated by the uncertainty of re- 

 ceiving supplies. We doubt the ability of enemy sub- 

 marines to make effective a blockade of ports in Great 

 Britain and Ireland. But the sinking, with loss of life, 

 of half-a-dozen ships out of one thousand would have 

 a great moral effect, which means that shipowners and 

 sailors and insurance companies would be seriously 

 perturbed, and wages, freight and insurance would be 

 raised, with consequent further effect upon the cost of 

 cargoes to customers. By the law of affinities misfor- 

 tunes for the public never come singly. The attack on 

 the Suez Canal is conceived for the same purpose. The 

 sinking of one or two ships there also would produce a 

 moral effect on shipowners and sailors. Every one of 

 these things tends to increase prices of food stuffs and 



