Aug. 16.
The continuation of the German campaign attacking Great Britain for not permitting food from the Uniled States, or elsewhere to reach the occupied territories of Europe merely shows how anxious Berlin is that this means of circumventing the blockade shall if possible succeed. Clearly, an attenipt is ing made to influence American opinion to such an extent that it might seek to oblige Britain to yield to the pressure of undue sentimentality. It is not at all likely to sue~ coed, and the responsibility for feeding the occupied countries will rest fairly and squarely upon the nation which has overrun them, "How heavy that responsibility is may bbe estimated from (ie fact tha 241,000,000 people face the prospect of short commons: during this coming winter. 'That gute is composed of 80,000,000 Germans, 45,000,000 Tlalians, 40,000,000 Poles, Norwegians, Danes, Hollanders, Czechs and' Belgians, 42,000,000 French and 4,100,000 in landlocked Switzer= lund. All these people are cut off from vital supplies and will continue to be as long as the British blockade holds. The European wheat harvest this year is subnormal, this war, if nothing else has made it so. Russia will' want all her own grain, and Italy, i she has lost no other battle yet, has lost one in her cornfields.
That does not necessarily mean that Europe is faced with famine. Tf German boasts are true she is possessed of ample stores of food= stuffs to which have been added those of the occupied countries, and, it has been estimated that Germany possesses, or controls some= thing in the neighbourhood of 10,000,000 tons of corn including her own reserves of 7,000,- 000 with which she entered the war. To this have to be added the current products of the present harvest. Tu these figures support is found for the British contention that occupied Europe is not threatened with famine if the Nazi machine is efficient enough to secure adequate and fair distribution of the supplies available. "But, as says, crux is not what supplies exist but what Ger= many will do with them." The slogan of "quns instead of butter" is a real indication of the German policy. Food is being turned into munitions of war." Potatoes which should feed the hungry go to provide motive power, fats go into explosives, mille into the erection of plastic materials. "So far as this phase of German mobilization is concerned ig assisting the British blockade, and it is foolish {o suggest that Britain should retrain from doing that which Ger actually doing herself, namely depriving her people and those she' has subjugated of the foodstuffs necessary to Keep them alive and good health.
The British case is simple. It is that there are still in Europe sufficient supplies to prevent serious privation, and that it is up to the Nazis to sce that there is proper organiza tion and: distribution of them together with a stoppage of the present system of ¢xploitation.. The German case is amply sot forth by the "Voelkischer Beobuchter™ which says "The great duty of the German authorities is to continue feeding the German public......Do the English really imagine that] our food supplies which are, indeed, great, are destined to feed the friends of England this winter?" The Journal goes on "In Ger many food is considered only as-a piece war machinery, and it is German policy to exploit all European resources for war." This from a unit of Germany's controlled press clearly shows what the German attitude in this matter is to be. It is apparent~ no concern of the German Government what happens to those nations it has occupied and is attempting to govern. So ong as the German people are fed, it matters. nota whit to what suffering the rest of Europe is subjected. It will be exploited to the utmost, and if there is famine the Nazis will seek {0 place the blame on Britain. They will not succeed. The blockade will con-into. No false sentiment will be allowed to minimize its effectiveness, and if the people of Europe have to suffer it will be with the knowledge that British vielory will sce them restored to freedom, released from slavery to a man anda people who know nothing of humanity, and still less of mercy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.