In wartime, the safeguarding and assurance of adequate food supplies are no less important than of armament and military equipment. In the United Kingdom, some 2 years of planning and organizational work toward this end were carried out prior to the present war by the Food (defense plans) Department, now the Ministry of Food. An elaborate food-control system has been developed since September 3, 1939. Prices and stocks of several major food products are strictly controlled. Domestic farm output is to be considerably enlarged through devoting permanent grassland to arable-crop cultivation. This has a significant bearing on exports of United States farm products to the United Kingdom, customarily valued at around $250,000,000 per year, or about one-third of the United States total to all countries.2 Great Britain is dependent upon imports for around 65 percent of its total food requirements. For wheat, its breadstuff base, and sugar, the figure is approximately 75 percent. This situation makes the country particularly vulnerable in wartime, as the World War demonstrated when in the summer of 1917 enemy submarine activity greatly endangered Great Britain's food supply. Although a food controller was appointed in December 1916, it was not until July 1918, after nearly 4 years of war, that a general system of food rationing became operative in Great Britain. In developing its program of economic and military rearmament since 1936 in order to insure the national defense, the British Government has had the experience of the World War period to draw on,3 and now enters another European war with an elaborate and comprehensive system of food (and other supplies) control largely completed, which is considered superior even to that obtaining at the end of the World War. The essential elements of the present set-up to provide for food supply, storage, control, and distribution are the former Food (defense plans) Department, now absorbed into the new Ministry of Food; the Board of Trade; and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Legislation of particular import is embodied in the Essential Commodities Reserves Act, 1938; the Agricultural Development Act, 1939; the Emergency Powers (defense) Act, of August 24, 1939; and the Import, Export, and Customs (defense) Act, of September 1, 1939. 2 See "Agriculture in the Anglo-American Trade Agreement," Foreign Agriculture, December 1938. 3"British Food Control," by Sir W. H. Beveridge, and "Food Production in War," by T. H. Middleton, both in Economic and Social History of the World War (British series), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1928 and 1923, respectively. FIGURE 1.-British wartime control of agriculture and its products Britain and chief divisional officers Acquisition of foreign supplies and do- Price control.-Maximum (wholesale Control of stocks.-Domestic stocks and Ministry of Agriculture. County Agricultural Advisers. Subcommittees of the foregoing. To insure that agricultural land is used Announced program for an additional Farm machinery and fertilizer to be Board of Trade. Import Licensing Department. Trade associations collaborating closely Control over prices, stocks, and distri- Control is exercised by the Ministry, or 215171-40-50 ORGANIZATION AND LEGISLATION FOOD (DEFENSE PLANS) DEPARTMENT One of the most important steps in Great Britain's economic rearmament policy was the establishment of a special department in the Board of Trade, the Food (Defense Plans) Department, in November 1936, under the direction of Sir Henry French, then second secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture. The functions of the Department were to formulate plans for the supply, control, and distribution of food for defense purposes after the outbreak of hostilities; it was not concerned with domestic farm production, which remained under the Ministry of Agriculture. The aim of these plans, as stated by the Food (Defense Plans) Department, was (1) to secure in wartime an uninterrupted supply in the United Kingdom of all essential foodstuffs; (2) to reduce to a minimum the inconvenience and delay caused by any dislocation in the movement and distribution of foodstuffs resulting from war conditions; and (3) to insure in wartime that supplies of essential foodstuffs at controlled prices were available to meet the requirements of all types of consumers and in all parts of the country. It was also the aim of the Food (Defense Plans) Department, according to its annual report for 1937, to anticipate every important problem that a future Ministry of Food might be called upon to deal with during, say, the first 6 months of food control. The annual report also outlined several supply-distributioncontrol schemes for such commodities as cereals, flour, bread, butcher's meat, bacon and hams, sugar, tea, and edible fats, worked out in consultation with leading members of the various food trades and the Ministry of Agriculture. In order to assist in the regulation of supply and demand in wartime, 18 divisional food officers were appointed in Great Britain and chief divisional officers for London and the Home Counties to cooperate with, or possibly supervise, some 1,400 local Food Control Committees to be established throughout the country. Also food executive officers for these future local control committees were appointed, in most cases the clerk to the local authority. In this fashion a "shadow' organization was set up throughout Great Britain to facilitate the introduction of rationing and other aspects of food control in the event of war. Food-control plans were virtually completed by the Food (Defense Plans) Department and a large part of the requisite organizational set-up established in collaboration with the various food trade associations several months before the outbreak of the present war. All this greatly facilitated the establishment early in September of the new Ministry of Food, which absorbed the Food (Defense Plans) Department of the Board of Trade. THE MINISTRY OF FOOD The chief functions of the new Ministry of Food are (1) the acquisition of food supplies from abroad; (2) the imposition of price-control measures; (3) the control over domestic stocks of important foodstuffs; and (4) the organization of distribution (including food rationing). W. S. Morrison, a former Minister of Agriculture, was appointed Minister of Food on September 4, and Sir Henry French, until then Director of the Food (Defense Plans) Department, became Secretary. A number of sections have been set up in the Ministry of Food, each dealing with a particular commodity or commodity group, with the section or "control" chief being assisted by trade advisers. The methods of control vary, however, in accordance with the particular circumstances in each branch of the trade. For instance, for cereals and cereal products, contact by the Ministry with the trade is through a special board, the Cereals Advisory Control Board, on which commercial interests ar represented. The Ministry of Food will have a monopoly of the British import trade in foodstuffs, or at least all such imports will be under the Ministry's control. Responsibility in general for the acquisition of foreign supplies has been delegated to a General Supplies Division. Though some flexibility will no doubt be exercised, it is understood that centralized buying will be adopted for certain important staples. In this regard, certain individuals have already been designated as buyers. Price control, largely in the form of established maximum prices, has been applied by the new Food Ministry to most important foodstuffs; and the assumption of control over stocks has been almost as comprehensive as price control. The Ministry's activity in connection with the organization of distribution has 4 Report of the Food (Defense Plans) Department for the year ended December 31, 1937, London, 1938, 39 pp. thus far been confined in large part to decentralization of the physical handling and storage of essential foodstuffs. Plans have been completed, however, for the introduction of individual ration cards on January 8, 1940. In addition to the 18 divisional food officers in Great Britain and chief divisional food officers in London and the Home Counties, the Ministry of Food is assisted in controlling the prices and distribution of foodstuffs by the numerous local Food Control Committees. There is a Food Control Committee for the area of every local authority or a Joint Food Control Committee where local authorities combine for that purpose. In England and Wales, each committee comprises 15 members, 5 of which must be from the retail food trades, and the remaining 10 (2 of which must be women) persons may be regarded as representative of all classes of persons within the area. Retail dealers in foodstuffs are licensed by the local Food Control Committees, and such license may be suspended or revoked in accordance with instructions issued by the Ministry of Food. BOARD OF TRADE AND MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE The Board of Trade, under the provisions of the Import, Export, and Customs Powers (Defense) Act, 1939, is empowered to control the importation into, and exportation from, the United Kingdom of all commodities and kinds of goods. Under this authority, the Board of Trade has already prohibited imports and exports of a large number of products except under license by the Board. Consequently, the Board of Trade and the new Ministry of Food, in view of the latter's activities in the acquisition of supplies of foreign foodstuffs, will have to cooperate very closely in importations of this kind. There will doubtless be other work in connection with food control by the Board of Trade, now that its former Food (Defense Plans) Department has been taken over by the new Ministry of Food. (The Board of Trade corresponds in a general way to the United States Department of Commerce.) Domestic farm production remains within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture; and in addition that Ministry has been given far-reaching control over the entire agricultural industry of the United Kingdom, under the provisions of the Defense Regulations of August 25 promulgated in pursuance of the Emergency Powers (Defense) Act, 1939. The program calls, among other things, for increased farming efficiency, and greatly enlarged foodstuff output through a shift from grassland to arable cultivation. Incidentally, it may be pointed out that there is not a unified Ministry of Agriculture for the United Kingdom, but rather three separate organizations, which cooperate closely with each other; namely, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (for England and Wales), the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, and the Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland. LEGISLATION The Essential Commodities Reserves Act, 1938, empowered the Board of Trade to conduct activities in connection with the storage, preservation, and transport of essential commodities (including foodstuffs, feedstuffs, and fertilizer for land). It also authorized the establishment of a fund to be called "The Essential Commodities Reserves Fund," into which should be paid such moneys as Parliament might determine. Few details are known regarding the operation of this act other than that about £8,500,000 in 1938 and at least £5,000,000 in 1939 (and possibly a great deal more) were expended for the storage of wheat, other foodstuffs, and certain raw materials. The Agricultural Development Act, 1939, effective July 28, 1939, aimed to encourage increased agricultural output in the United Kingdom, (1) by protecting farmers against low prices for oats, barley, and fat sheep through subsidy payments under certain conditions; (2) by promoting the plowing up of grassland and rendering it fit for arable crops, through a subsidy payment of £2 (equivalent to $8) per acre; (3) by the establishment of a reserve of tractors and other agricultural machinery; and (4) by increasing the resources of the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. 5 The day afrer the conclusion of the Russo-German pact, Parliament passed the Emergency Powers (Defense) Act, 1939, which received royal assent the same day (August 24). This act, essentially a "Defense-of-the-Realm" act (during the World War referred to as "D. O. R. A."), empowers the Government to make such defense regulations by orders in council as may appear to be necessary or expedient, Conversions throughout this article are made at the rate of $4.02 per pound sterling. for the purpose, among other things, of maintaining supplies and services essential to the life of the community. Under the foregoing authority, the Defense Regulations, 1939 were promulgated on August 25. Rules 61, 62, 63, 66, and 67 of the Defense Regulations confer powers on the Minister of Agriculture for comprehensive control of agriculture in the United Kingdom. The Import, Export, and Customs Powers (Defense Act), 1939 (enacted on September 1), authorizes the Board of Trade to control the importation into, and exportation from, the United Kingdom of all kinds of goods or products. FOOD CONTROL ORDERS AND OPERATIONS It After the declaration of war on September 3, 1939, there were issued successively a large number of Statutory Orders and Regulations, referred to herein as "orders," pertaining to the British food supply during the war emergency. The following is a summarization, at least of the more important features, of the information thus far received in the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations regarding the British control of imports, exports, prices, and stocks of foodstuffs. need hardly be pointed out that, at this juncture, only a preliminary picture of the intricacies of the British food-control system can be formed owing to the fact that orders are still being issued, either amending previous orders or extending some control feature to a product not previously covered. Consequently, readers are cautioned that the following price and other control data relation to the various food products are presented to give general information or "background" rather than to serve as complete and currently accurate marketing data, which, obviously, under existing conditions is impossible in a monthly periodical. The organization of the various controls is shown in figure 1, page 546. IMPORT CONTROL The Board of Trade on September 4 issued an order prohibiting imports of a long list of products except under license by the Board's Import Licensing Department. The order exempted goods despatched to the United Kingdom before September 5. Some of the agricultural products on the list were certain fresh fruits, fruit juices, canned vegetables other than tomatoes, honey, hops, and certain hop products, poultry and game, and meat extracts. Importers were advised not to make arrangements for imports until they had either obtained a license for the commodities listed or ascertained definitely that a license would be granted. (With regard to payment for American shipments, the following information was contained in an official cablegram from London dated October 31: Both the Ministry of Food and private importers are allowed to pay for imports from the United States in either dollars or sterling. There is no question of asking American exporters to accept payment in blocked sterling. Dollars at the official rate are granted for all goods that have been, or will be, actually imported.) On September 5 the Board of Trade announced a list of items for which no import licenses would be granted until further notice. The list included flowers, poultry and meat pastes, sausages (canned or otherwise preserved), meat pies, caviar, canned or preserved crabs, lobsters and oysters, confectionery of all kinds, hops, hop oil, extracts and similar preparations made from hops, and dried vegetables (other than peas, beans, and lentils). With respect to other commodities on the import list, the order states that licenses will be issued for limited quantities, the actual allocations being calculated for the time being on the basis of the trade of each importer during the 12 months ended August 31. It is emphasized by the Board of Trade that the adoption of the import-licensing arrangement does not mean that the items listed may not be imported, except where an absolute embargo may be ordered. In granting licenses, the foreignexchange situation will be the dominating factor. Shipping space and war requirements, however, will also be taken into consideration. Since the objective is to save exchange in order to utilize foreign-exchange resources for the importation of absolute necessities, a virtual ban, it is intimated, will be imposed on the imports of all luxury and semiluxury items that can be supplied in adequate volume by home resources. It should be noted that import licenses are not required for most stable products such as wheat and wheat flour, cotton, tobacco, pork, and lard, all of which are important items in American exports to the United Kingdom. Statutory Rules and Orders 1939, No. 927, 68 pp. |