RICHARD FERRIS, Editorial Staff of The Americana. FOOD PROBLEMS AND THE WAR. corn the moment that the European War arted it was realized by many people that food ould play an important part in deciding the itcome of the conflict. It is doubtful, how 'er, if anybody during the early days of the niggle realized the vital importance this prod t would assume; and certainly none among e masses of the various populations were ware of the significance of this factor. It was ily by the development of facts concerning ipply, by the application of voluntary and cons ilsory systems of distribution and rationing, ,r the knowledge that starvation was depleting to peoples of some countries while shortage as being felt almost everywhere, and by a )rig process of education that the general pub c was made to recognize the great truth of the togan : 'Food Will Win the War) The magnitude of the problem, the vast mount of adjustment and readjustment which tould be necessary to make supplies equal to .emands, was not grasped during the first year 4- two of the war. There was a food prob em, to be sure, almost from the moment the first German soldier set foot on Belgian soil. 3ut this problem with its hundreds of ramifi :ations kept growing with the progress of the var until, long before the conflict was ended, t had become the greatest, the most absorbing, he most vitally necessary problem among all hose which had to be solved. Most of the ither problems of the war were in a sense na ional while that of food was international. It ed to the appointment of international bodies .o deal with its various phases and to under standings and agreements between the different :ountries as to what amounts of this and that )roduct could be exported and imported. The :arrying out of national measures pertaining to the distribution and consumption of food was secured by a general interallied understanding. An interallied *wheat executive° was established in December 1916, and later a 'meats and fats') executive appointed by France, Great Britain and Italy, thereby providing interallied buying and apportionment of imported supplies. At the suggestion of Herbert C. Hoover, Food Administrator of the United States, there was established in September 1917, an international sugar committee in New York to centralize the purchase and avocation of Cuban and American sugars. The interallied meat and fat executive,
consisting of one British, one French and one Italian representative, collected information on the monthly requirements of these countries and the purchases which they decided on were made by the allied provisions export commission sisting of members from the countries named.
There were in a general way five great prob lems which presented themselves in connection with the feeding of the nations outside the con trol of the Central Powers. One was to bring about an increased production; a second, to reg ulate distribution; the third, to limit consump tion; the fourth, to provide for the needs of Belgium and other countries which became de pendent on the Allies for their meagre supplies; and the fifth, to see that large quantities of food from the neutral nations did not' fall into the hands of the enemy and thus increase his power of offensive and of resistance.
In point of time, the first of these which had to be considered was that of providing for the needs of Belgium. With that country overrun and placed at the mercy of Germany within a few months after the war had started, it was necessary to take prompt action. This was done by the appointment of a commission which under the untiring leadership of Mr. Hoover performed a task of humanitarian service such as the world up to that time had never wit nessed. As far as was humanly possible under the circumstances the civilian population of Bel gium was furnished by the outside nations with the necessities of life. A similar effort to pro vide for the needs of Poland was not so suc cessful because of the impossibility of reaching a complete understanding on the subject with the German government. But to the extent of their ability the allied nations continued through out the war to look out for the food demands of the unfortunate peoples who through the in vasion of their territory, the cutting off of their natural resources or the loss of their crops were unable to support themselves.