The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-30
GREAT BRITAIN IS
 ID CUT DOWN HER
 MEAT CONSUMPT| TON
No More Imports for Civil ian Population - Cheap Meat Going to French
 and Italian Armies

London, May 2O.-(Speciel)-One of the cormonplaces of the war situation in England is that the people in this coun-
 try have not begun to feel the pinch of the war. It is true that taxes and prices are both up, but the situation IS laf
 different from that of the people or
 France. Russia, Germany or any or the
 other warning powers with the war on
 their doorsteps and in scGae instances
 with their country overrun by the en-
 emy. No one has had to go without
 the necessities or even most of the lux
 uries of life in England.
 This does not mean, however, that
 things are quite as usual. The import
 of a good many unnecessary luxuries mas
 been restricted or forbidden and am in-
 formed now that further restrictions are
 in store before long, The one that VIII
 affect the people most is that or meat
 The government has decided that no
 more meat is to be imported Into the
 British isles for sometime to come. rms
 is partly due to the lack of tonnage put
 more to the fact that Great Britain has
 undertaken to provide meat for the
 French and Italian armies from the overseas supply, and. therefore, all the cheap meat which formed so large portion of the British consumption IS to be cut off from the civilian market. This will compel Great Britain to fali pack on the home supply, which in ordinary
 times forms about 50 per cent of the whole It may be increased a little, but it is likely that the government when 1t prohibits the import Of foreign meat will take some steps to prevent home farmers from depicting their stock to any dan gerous degree, they will doubtless De tempted to do by the prices to which | home grown meat will soar, in the ab- sence of foreign competition.
 Another commodity now in very gen. | eral use, the supply of which is to be | restricted, is petrol. The reason for this l is two-fold-the shortage of tonnage and | the desire to restrict unnecessary pur- | chases abroad. In addition to these there | is the desire to check wasteful joy riding. | It is likely that a card system will be | introduced for persons who use motor ve- | hicles for business purposes, and that | the supply for private motorists will be sternly restricted, if not cut off alto- gether
 | Sugar is also now on the list of articles which are restricted. When the govern
 ment took over the sugar business at the
 beginning of the war appeals were made to the people to use this necessity spar | ingly, but in spite of this the consumption | went up with leap. Now the supply is cut down and grocers are only allowed ] to have their average quantities. Most ! of them have met the situation by put | ting their customers on a similar allow l ance, and refusing to sell to strangers, l but others have taken advantage of the l situation by refusing to sell sugar unless l other articles, such as tea, are pur- chased at the same time. I heard few
 days ago of a housewife who ran short of sugar and had to spend 75 cents on ar ticles which she did not want in order l to obtain one pound of sugar which she | did want at 10 cents. ,t