PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



769 



country may safely roly on receiving its daily brea*l automatically. But if any 

 interruption occurred at a time when the trade, for the reasons just indicated, 

 happened to be running on low stocks, the margin for contingencies might be 

 insuificient. I am, of course, debarred from discussing the method adopted or 

 the manner in which the scheme was carried out, but, as the cereal year for 

 which it was devised is over, it is permissible to state that the object in view 

 was successfully achieved. 



Of the 47,000,000 people who form the population of the United Kingdom 

 the large majority are absolutely dependent for their daily food on the organisa- 

 tion and regular distribution of supplies. The countryman, even if he possesses 

 no more than a pig and a garden, might exist for a short time, but the town- 

 dweller would speedily starve if the organisation of supplies broke down. He 

 does not, perhaps, sufficiently realise the intricacy of the commercial arrange- 

 ments which make up that organisation, or the obstacles which arise when the 

 whole economic basis of the community is disturbed by a cataclysm such as 

 that which came upon us thirteen months ago. The sorry catchword ' Business 

 as usual ' must have sounded very ironically in the ears of many business men 

 confronted with unforeseen and unprecedented difficulties on every side. The 

 indomitable spirit with which they were met, the energy and determination 

 with vi'hich they were overcome, afford further evidence of that which has been 

 so gloriously demonstrated on land and sea, that the traditional courage and 

 grit of the British race have not been lost. 



To the question how have our oversea food supplies been maintained during 

 the first year of the war, the best answer can be given in figures. 



Imports of the principal kinds of food during the first eleven months of the 

 war were as under, the figures for the corresponding period of 1913-14 being 

 shown for comparison : 



Wheat (including flour) . 



Meat 



Bacon and hams 



Cheese 



Butter (inclTiding margarine) 



Fruit 



Rice 



Sugar 



Increase 4- 



or Decrease — 



per Cent. 



— 1*39 

 -11-97 

 +2i'12 

 -f 15-93 



— 6 47 

 -f 7-53 

 +97-79 



— 8-67 



In total weight of these food-stuffs, the quantity brought to onr shores was 

 rather larger in time of war than in time of peace. Yet one still occasionally 

 meets a purblind pessimist who plaintively asks what the Navy is doing. This 

 is a part of the answer. It is also a measure of the success of the much- 

 advertised German ' blockade ' for the starvation of England. So absolute a 

 triumph of sea-power in the first year of war would have been treated as a wild 

 dream by the most confirmed optimist two years ago. The debt which the 

 nation owes to our sailor-men is already immeasurable. That before the enemy 

 is crushed the debt will be increased we may be assured. The crisis of our 

 fate has not yet passed, and we may be called upon to meet worse trials than 

 have yet befallen us. But in the Navy is our sure and certain hope. 



' That which they have done is but earnest of the things that they shall do.' 



Under the protection of that silent shield the land may yield its increase 

 untrodden by the invading foot, the trader may pursue his business undismayed 

 by the threats of a thwarted foe, and the nation may rely that, while common 

 prudence enjoins strict economy in husbanding our resources, sufficient supplies 

 of food will be forthcoming for all the reasonable needs of the people. 



1915. 



3 D 



