Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-15
NO WORLD RELIEF
FROM H. c. OF |.
UNTIL SOCIAL REST
British Official Says Also
War-ShaXered Machinery
Must Be Put in Order.

= LONDON. December ! Correspond
encA of the Associated Press).-The
world can expect no relief from the
present high cost of living and the
shortage of commodities until the wide
spread social and industrial unrest has
disappeared and the war-shattered eco
nomic machinery has been put in order.
according to Charles A. McCurdy, par
liamentary secretary to the ministry
of food. Mr. McCurdy expressed this
view during an interview with a corre-
spondent of the Associated Press, and
added that he was not particularly opti-
mistic over the chances of any marked
bettermcnt of the situation in the near
future.
I'VE have boIshevism at one end of
the world and widespread strikes. at
the other" said Mr.. McCurdy, land not
until society resumes it's normal course
can We right economic conditions.
1T is very difficult to prophesy re-
garding the food situation of the future
in view of the fact that the whole eco
nomic structure of the world has been
so badly dislocated. There is hardly any
factor of business that is stable, and
we do not know what wages are to be.
AS a result of these conditions the regu-
lar channels of distribution are disor-
ganized and until they are normal it
will be impossible to tell what effective
supplies there are as compared with the
world stocks.
Abundance Is Fictitious.
while it is true that America, Eng
land and some other countries are suffi-
GENTLY supplied now SO that there is no
distress among the people, yet this COM
parative abundance is in reality fiicti-
tlous one, and may not last. Great sec
tons of the world are actually hungry
berausa of the impossibility OF distrib-
uting supplies properly. II the chan
nels of distribution were open and the
economic conditions were such that
foodstuffs could be purchased by those
countries which need them we probably
would find ourselves faced with a short.
age in many things.
For example. if the peoples OF CEN
trail Europe should be in position next
year to purchase the meat they need
there would be world shortage of sew
eral million tons. 1t is impossible that
they will be able to buy, but 1t is i'm
possible to predict SO far in advance.
believe that a year from now things
will have been brought to a head and
critical time.
There are those who tell me that
am wrong in my outlook and that
there will be no shortage. but I can
hgure it no other way. There GER
tainly are many countries now which
are securing far below what they
need in the way of foodstuffs. and
when the time comes for them to buy
it will be impossible to refuse them
their fair share Of what the world
produces. We cannot let one part of
the world starve while another section
has plenty.
There is another factor to be con-
sidered also. Where production has
been stimulated during the war 1T
must ultimately revert to normal. 1t
is not natural as it stands. In the
United States, for instance, the meat
production has been artifically stimu-
lated and it is hard to estimate when
this temporary condition will vanish.
porter of meat, instead Of a big ex-
porter. See what that would mean to
the rest of the world.
"On the other hand, production has
been crippled in many countries. In
this case the process of getting back
to normal is likely to be slower than
in the case of the war-stimulated pro-
duction.
In Europe as a whole there is an
actual shortage of II per cent in
sheep and a larger shortage in pigs.
Because of this Europe would have to
import 100000 tons of meat this
coming year. IL it were to return to
it's pre-war consumption.
I'm regard to wheat, the exportable
surplus of the world is down COM
pared with that before the war. I'm
port requirements at the same time
are up. The same thing is true of
butter. and in some countries it's con-
sumption has been increased by the
lack of margarine. There is also a
sugar shortage. e..
THE beet sugar production has