Moralists all (he world over will find ample texts for eloquence and indignation in this double assertion that poverty is all but universal, and that even wealth and prosperity where they exist, afford no high road io sane and sound nutrition unless there is knowledge at hand, or knowledge in solution in the form of education. The report furnishes plenty of information that the average quality of diet improves appreciably wherever incomes rises, but that on the other hand malnutrition is worsened wherever the problem of domestic maintenance is deepened by the burden-of supporting a number óf children.
The peoples of Asia could have told the Committee that last home truth Without recourse to extensive statistics, but this by the way. Although old-fashioned propagandists may jib at this new consignment of evidence in favour of birth control, the Committee would probably report that its mission is to review the facts of world existence and not to fight the conflicts between orthodoxy and its opposites.
"The report also envisages another difficulty in the fact that when it urges the paramount consideration of raising the levels of income, it confronts a problem which touches closely on internal policy in different countries. Every one is well aware that high-minded economists here and there are using this very factor of malnutrition in order to awaken their countrymen to the need for better and fuller diet if the coming generation, dnd even the present ones, are to do their duty, either in the feld of agriculture or on the field of war.
But here the moralists come in again, and people will find this report utilized tothe full for enforcing the hardship or folly (as the case ray be) of armament expenditure when money is so sorely needed for keeping body and soul together.
Urgent Need of Capital Above 'All, as the report, points out, this' deplorable state of things cannot Be rerhetiied in à hurry, and certainly not without capital, and here it has to be left to each nation to work out its own salvation as best it may, according to its respective policies of aggression or defence. But the report sees clearly that a vast part of the'food required for the continuance ana improvement of the race must be produced near to the areas of consumption, and this must needs five an enormous fillip to the distribution of domestic agriculture. The report also speaks up for the promotion of agricultural credit such ös has long occupied the financiers of India.
The' report advocates the wise course of: directing policy towards "helping the orderly expansion of agriculture and its adaptation to the changing demand. It considers that the State and agricultural organizations can help the adaptation of agriculture by educating farmers in the latest methods and processes, and by circulating information of the general trend in the demand for foods. And here the report holds the balance impartially as between rival schools of fiscal policy so as to appeal to all countries on the main count of subordinating finance and trade to the supreme duty of assisting human life.: Then the report pro-
"The adaptation of agriculture 0 changed requirements can be impeded as Well as facilitated by State action. Thus tariffs and other forms of trade restriction may, if excessive, go affect prices as to draw farmers into he production of food for which demand is Shrinking, and consequently prevent them from expanding the production Of foods the consumption of which it Would be desirable to increase.
Subsidies to consumption, on the other equally valuable and at the frequently bring under cultivation inferior land and may' result in lower yields.
The Universal Menu One might illustrate point after point in the report by drawing on the inexhaustible array of news and controversies in the press regarding some phase or other of the great food question, France, for instance, is erecting a series of imposing monuments io the pioneers who invented a special kind of cheese" like Camembert, or who have acclimatized the potato as did Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the chief phy.ician at the Invalides, Paris, military hospital in the eighteenth century. Other nations blest with an inexhaustible fertility, continue to develop fresh lines of industry according to demand; and nations further north bring extra diligence and organization ana marketing methods to bear on the deficiències of climate or soil, Denmark 4s specially singled out in the report as a nation which has effected an important change-over from the production of cereals for export to animal husbandry as the basis for her export trade, but has mot neglected her cereal output on that account. The report might also have instanced the manner in which Denmark solves the problem ürbán congestion and the daily preparation of food by creating community restaurants where wholesome meals are available several times a day with a variety and at a price that appeal to all.
There appeared of late a valuable catalogue prepared at some expense and trouble by the well-known anti-quar ian booksellers, Messrs. Maggs, of London, devoting several hundred pages to a detailed enumeration of books and other publications dealing with this universal subject of food in all ages and nations; and the illustrations covering several centuries are alone enough to make the brochure sought by librarians and collectors. It is only fair to say, however, that if there is ever a second edition, this final report of the Astor Committee would take the place of honour if only for the dynamic force of its ideas for the solution of old and widespread prob-Jems, but also for the manner in which it rescues from the dilettante and the faddist a theme which is urgent and vital to mankind all the world over.
AN the commentators who have dealt with it so far recognize the extreme candour, tact and; simplieity with which it presents its message. and the effective way in which it marshals an amazing body o! statistics ana first-hand evidence.
Without didacticism or any dictatorial ione, it enforces its lesson in a judicial and interesting manner, and reminds us of the seriousness of its agenda by saying.
The malnutrition which exists in all countries is at once a challenge and SEnces and an opportuhitr ap eradicate a social evil by methods will increase economic prosperity.
It is no slight compliment to British
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.