Evening star., 1915-01-28
Bakers Declare They Have
Been Selling at a Loss for
Some Time.
ADVANCE IS CREDITED TO
TRANSPORT DIFFICULTIES
No Dreaded War Prices on Articles
of Food-Higher Fish and
Eggs Hit the Poor.
special Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
LONDON, January 16.-The rise Of a
penny in the price of bread is now in
operation. Within the last few days
the price Of wheat has gone up a
shilling the sack, and the bakers main
tain that the cost Of the quartern loaf
works out for them at 71.d 15 cents),
although the shop price is even now
only I'd. The rise is due not to shortage
of -four, but chiefly to transport diff
culties. The bakers say that they have
been selling bread at loss for some
time, and one curious explanation Of
the slowness of the rise in London is
that when war broke out the baking
trade was largely in the hands of Ger
mans, who were reluctant for obvious
reasons to put up the price.
Generally speaking, we have not yet
experienced any of the dreaded war
prices of foods, except perhaps in tea,
Dish and eggs. The rise in tea is en-
tirely the result of the war duty, and
charged on the inferior kinds there is
a run on those. The supply of fish has
fallen off greatly. and all kinds are
now dearer, especially herrings.
The penny herring now costs two
pence. This Is hard on the poor, who
are fond of fish and can be seen eat
ing fried fish out of bits of news
paper on the street any day. The fried
lish shops are meeting the difficulty by
selling smaller quantity of fish at the
old price.
The stoppage. of the Russian egg
trade is the chief reason for the
scarcity and dearness, and as the best
eggs are wanted for the hospitals the
breakfast egg is becoming a luxury in
economical households.
Predict Further Rise in Meats.
A further rise in meat prices is pre-
dicted as the result of the scarcity in
the market, caused partly by the large
contracts for supply of meat to the
English and French armies and the
high freight charges. Against these
things must be set the extraordinary
abundance and cheapness Of fruit. War
economy in many households takes the
form of buying the inferior kinds of
articles, but in some cases this policy
only has the result of sending up the
price Of those kinds in proportion to
the increases in the best qualities;
In the Whitechapel district of Lon
don there is a great mass of casual
labor and of people more or less unem-
ployable, so that there is always some
chronic poverty; but so far as the war
has affected Whitechapel it has been
to the good. The docks are SO ex-
traordinarily busy that all capable
casual labor has been able to accom-
modate itself. and the people who are
troubled most are those engaged in the
cigar trade, typists and dressmakers.
The cigarette trade, of course. is good.
Gifts Of Food for 500.
About 500 of the most needy in
Whitechapel received gifts of food yes
terday from the colonies. The commit
tee made every effort to avoid a dis
play of poverty, and the people came
for their gifts of food at the art gal
lery at any time in the afternoon Each
person had a bag containing potatoes
and cheese, and with it form enabling
the recipient to go to a neighboring
baker for bread.
About 200 of the bags were distrib-