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Mr. Lloyd George's contention is that the Government farm subsidy, passed last June, awarding £2 per acre to farmers who would plow up their old pastureland, is not stimulus enough. He railed: "There are 2,500,000 acres less tillage in this country than in 1914. ... You must not be like the German delegates [in 1919] and come to the peace table with empty barns.
"The Germans learned the lesson. . . . Now they depend for 5% of their food from overseas, while we are dependent for 60%. . . .
"Every man and woman, and every acre of the soil of England, must play a part for victory. You can save millions of tons of shipping by a great food production campaign!"
Prime Minister Chamberlain replied that his eloquent predecessor, whom he lumped among "venerable prophets of agriculture," was unduly alarmed. The Government's program besides bringing 2,000,000 acres back into cultivation, includes urging people to grow their own vegetables, encouraging subsistence farming. A laying hen in every tool shed is an objective.
Perhaps Lion Lloyd George was indeed too loud-roaring, for even without Eire, which provides her with 2,400,000 tons of potatoes, Great Britain's food-producing capacity is actually above 1914 in some respects. Farthest off are oats and barley. Wheat is up 3%. Number of cattle and pigs is up by more than 4,000,000 head. Britain now has sugar beets in 345,000 acres, against 4,000 in 1914.
But Britain now has some 4,000,000 more mouths to feed (omitting all Irish) than in 1914. Her food imports of £295,000,000 in 1914 rose to £431,000,000 in 1939 while total home food production rose only from £180,000,000 to £224,600,000.
To save grains, whiskey production last week was decreased two-thirds, despite Britain's need for salable exports. To save mutton, macon-making has been stopped.* (One shilling ten pence a week may be spent on pork, beef or mutton per adult, fish and fowl excepted.) Not until 1918 was that necessary last time.
Rations in France. Assuming that, as real allies, they will share & share alike on foodstuffs, what the French Government announced last week certainly sounded like an Allied food scare. On three days each week, pastry stores will be closed; on three days (including Saturday) each week, no spirits may be sold by liquor stores (wines & beer, unrestricted). Restaurants may henceforth serve only two-course meals, only one meat course. Butter is restricted. This week a census begins, to be the basis for gasoline ration cards in April.
At feeding herself, France, too, has fallen off since 1914. While her population went from 39,600,000 to 42,000,000, her cereal production went from 31,000,000 acres to 22,500,000, for example. Last week France's 5,500,000 farmers and farm laborers were ordered to stay on the land, keep out of cities, work for the war.
More Cuts Coming. France's belt-tightening was perhaps staged in some part to make the soldiers at the front feel that people at home were doing their bit. Doubtless the British measures contained a modicum of morale, too. But Robert Spear Hudson, Britain's Secretary of Overseas Trade, was not leading cheers when he told a Glasgow audience last week: