NovcniDer 29, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
5. CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, W.C.2 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29. 1917 
•V 
CONTENTS 
PAGE 
The Answer t^ the Submarine. By Louis Racmaekers i 
Food Rations. (Leader) 3 
Cambrai and Bourlon Hill By Hilairc Belloc 4 
The Last Crusader. (Poem) By Emile Cammaerts y 
Caricatures — By Order 9 
Minstrelsy in Macedonia. By H. Collinson Owen lo 
A Visit to the British Fleet. By Lewis R. Freeman n 
Zeeland Waters. By A British Prisoner of War 13 
The Late Edward Thomas i ^4 
Irish J.Temories. By J. C. Squire ^5 
Books of the Week. ' 16 
Folk Art. By Charles Marriott I9 
Domestic Economy 22 
Kit and Equipment. -5 
I 
FOOD RATIONS 
LET it be clearly and distinctly understood that the 
introduction of food rations in this country is only 
a question of time. They may be introduced 
befoie Christmas ; they may be postponed until 
Easter, but sooner or later a number of the necessities of life, 
more particularly those of which the weekly consumption has 
been specified by Sir Arthur Yapp, while the actual amount 
consumed is still left to the goodwill of the consumer, will 
have to be doled out weekly in order that there may be enough 
to go round. The problem with which we are more directly 
faced is one of distribution. This is the most difficult task 
of all to deal with ; how difficult only those who ha\e ever 
had to deal with famines are aware. In I ndia , where periodical 
droughts cause serious food shortages over laige areas, 
the problem was most carefully investigated some thirty 
years ago and a Famine Code was drafted which furnished 
precise instructions. Although there is nothing resembling 
famine in the United Kingdom, a shortage of -several vital 
commodities is present— a shortage, that is to say, as compared 
with normal times, when plentiful supplies permitted a 
considerable margin of waste in the process of the foodstuffs 
passing from producer to consumer. This shortage might 
easily develop into famine in certain districts through lack 
of control and direction unless the Government took the work 
in hand in good time. 
We are very sceptical whether voluntary rationing will 
ever achieve any substantial reduction in the consumption of 
foodstuhs. To begin with, the popular mind has been trained 
for years to regard Government as its keeper. The licensing 
laws rest on the assumption that the people are incapable of 
deciding for themselves how much alcohol they may safely 
drink. Thus Government declares the people to be in- 
competent to regulate their appetites in so far as luxuries 
are concerned — luxuries, the consumption of which is 
naturally restricted by the means at their disposal — where- 
fore for it now to turn round and expect them, by reason of a 
speech of a Government official or of a paragraph they may 
have chanced to read in their newspapers or on a hoarding, 
to restrict their consumption of necessities, which they have 
ample means to obtain, seems, to put it mildly, illogical. 
But it may be argued circumstances arc so different. This 
is only true in a sense. Most of the food staples are still as 
easy or almost as easy to obtain as alcoholic liquor was before 
the war ; and as we have before pointed out, it requires a 
strong effort of the imagination for any human being to realise 
that by reducing his portion of bread at a meal by a slice or 
two or his Sunday joint of beef by a lb. or a couple of lbs., 
he is doing his duty by his country. No doubt many house- 
holds can be found, especially among the better educated 
©f the working classes and also among the upper and middle 
classes, where a strict regimen is in lorcc and has been in 
force ever since the war began, but even placing these at the 
highest possible total they are relatively few. 
The fact has also not to be overlooked that there is a con- 
siderable alien pc pulation in this country. It is known that 
the bulk of the men are employing every subterfuge they can 
think of (some of which arc exceedingly clever to avoid 
military service. Is it reasonable to suppose this type of 
humanity will do anything to restrict its consumption, 
especially at the present time when more often than not it is 
enjoying the hectic flush of war-time prosperity? It has 
been said in responsible journals, and it has never been con- 
tradicted, that the alien peoples in our midst, whether in 
Ix)ndon or Leeds or elsewhere, are consuming more food 
per head than ever before. Nor need we be sui prised at it 
considering their former misery before they found an asylum 
in this country, and knowing as we have learnt to know to 
our cost how liberty is abused by those new to it, Russia of 
course being the outstanding example, the very country from 
which the bulk of these people come. 
There are various causes for the present food shortage, 
but looming behind tliem is the ominous truth, that the world 
production of food shows a substantial diminution, simply 
and solely on account of the war, and of the vast acreages that 
have remained untilled during the last two or three years, or 
have only been partially tilled for this reason. So the whole 
question of the national food supply and distribution is 
fast becoming a problem which will need the most scientific 
methods to solve satisfactorily before it can be safely left, to 
the natural forces that controlled it before the war. \\ e 
are already suffering from the inevitable mistakes of in- 
experience in public distribution ; no better instance could 
be cited than the present tea shortage. Tea is a British 
Empire product ; it can be shipped and is shipped practically 
every month in the year, and the amount of tonnage required 
to keep the British teapot full is comparatively small ; but 
directly the ordinary channels of trade were interfered with, 
new troubles arose, and it is only within the last few weeks that 
arrangements have been completed to overcome the present 
shortage. The same is true of margarine, though the ditfi- , 
culties were of a different character, and it may be taken for 
granted that directly the control of any staple of hfe passes 
from private to public hands, there are bound to arise 
obstacles which will require time to remove. 
To postpone food rations to the last possible moment would 
be most dangerous. They should be instituted before there 
is any actual need for them so that when the pinch comes, 
if it does come, the new channels of distribution will be run- 
ning smoothly and easily. This is only to put into public 
effect the daily practice of every citizen of common sense. 
In such households, economy has been carefully studied : . 
experiments have been made, according to means, of every 
form of substitute, and the pride is not to live up to any scale 
of voluntary rations, but to live below it. Last year poUtoes 
were a luxury ; everyone was begged to use them as sparingly 
as possible ; this year they arc just the reverse, and the more 
potatoes that are eaten and the less bread, the better. This 
is very confusing to the humble housewife who budgets in. 
ha'pence, more especially as almost every week brings with 
it some new puzzle. The sugar cards at the moment are a 
perpetual perplexity, and it is difficult to find any one who 
understands the right procedure. The system of strictly 
rationing hotels and restaurants as regards meat, bread, 
sugar, etc., has worked excellently, but because they 
offer to their wealthy and cosmopolitan clientele a choice of 
unrationed foods, they run the risk of being unfairly held up 
to obloquy. It is high tiirie that the whole question 
of food rations was dealt with in a much more straightforward 
manner, that fewer speeches were uttered, less gratuitous 
advice offered, and public action taken which would place 
the nation" in a secure position whatever the future may 
hold. In saying this we do not overlook the work it will 
entail or the inconvenience it will cause to individuals, but we 
maintain that both work and inconvenience will be less if com- 
jMilsory rationing is not postponed to the last moment, and 
then rushed. That is the danger that has to be faced. And 
it is a very real danger, 
