OUR FOOD SUPPLY IN TIME OF WAR 313 



of her produce for consumption at home, and conse- 

 quently will have small financial or commercial interest 

 in the matter of grain being declared contraband of 

 war.^ 



War, as a rule, breaks out suddenly, and for the 

 unprepared there is no time for preparation. In the 

 matter of food we are absolutely unprepared, and 

 the question would immediately become one affecting 

 the daily existence of the people. Careful calculations 

 have been made, which show the disquieting fact that 

 "during the last ten years, at no period have we had 

 in the United Kingdom sufficient stocks of wheat and 

 flour for more than seven weeks' consumption, and at 

 times the stocks have fallen as low as two weeks' 

 consumption, 



» 2 



^ The returns for 1904 are now available. They show that from one 

 cause and another our supplies of wheat and flour from the United 

 States were less than one-half of what they were in 1903. On the other 

 hand, the imports from Argentina, India, and Australia had largely 

 increased. The returns show the great fluctuations in the over-sea 

 sources of our wheat supply. 



2 " Our Food Supply in the Time of War," by T. V, S. Angler, F.R.S.S., 

 14 May, 1903. 



According to the Report of the Royal Commission on "Food Supply 

 in the Time of War," our stock of wheat in hand varies between a 

 maximum of seventeen weeks' supply and a minimutn of six-and-a-half 

 weeks. 



We have to go back to Roman history for a parallel to this dangerous 

 state of things. Egypt was the granary on which Rome depended for 

 wheat supplies. We are told that Vespasian, after the victory of his 

 forces at Cremona, " committed to the still tempestuous sea some of the 

 swiftest of his ships laden with corn, and well it was he did so, for the 

 City was then tottering under a state of things so critical that the corn 

 in the granaries was sufficient for no more than ten days' supply when 

 the stores from Vespasian came in to their aid." — Tacitus, Vol. II, book 4, 

 chap. Llli (Bohn's translation). 



Again the same lesson is taught by the story of the buccaneers : — 

 " They held complete possession of the Italian waters. Rome, depending 

 on Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa for her supplies of corn, was starving for 

 want of food." — Froude's " Caesar " (Longmans). 



