Not the least important of the references to Britain's national position made in the budget presented to the House of Commons on Tuesday by Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is the statement that the Government has acted in regard to the question of food supplies. Sir John Simon said the Government decided early this year to buy sufficient supplies of wheat, whale oil and sugar to ensure that stocks would be maintained at a sufficient level for the civil population during the early months of an emergency. These purchases, he added, had been made in conditions of utmost secrecy in order to prevent increased prices on the knowledge that the Government was in the market. There will be no criticism of this action on the part of the Government for it has long been known that in the event of another emergency Britain's food supplies are so limited that within two months the country would be on a starvation basis unless a considerable portion of the fleet were detached for convoy duty and foreign supplies were available. It has been suggested by a careful husbanding of resources and a more scientific utilization of storage facilities it is possible to accumulate sufficient supplies of the more essential commodities for six months, which would prevent shortage and enable a more or less normal supply system from abroad to be developed in conjunction with Britain's defence needs. This provision will prevent the excesses suffered during the Great War when the strictest degree of rationing had to be introduced to control food supplies, but in the early stages of the War there was great distress. Sir John's statement, however, merely touches the fringe of the problem of feeding the nation during a wal although it is a sound piece of insurance. Corelated with this is the development of domestic agriculture, a cause of much misgiving in recent: years owing to the slight financial) support provided by the Government, according fo some observers. Another equally important question refers to British shipping. It is pointed out that there has been a great increase in competition from foreign shipping companies increasing the dependence of transport on non-British lines to the detriment of British comies. Admiral Sir Henry Bruce, writing to Daily Telegraph," draws attention to this situation but observes that coastwise shipping is improving and suggests that even greater encouragement should be given to British shipping "at a time when Britain requires to strengthen her mercantile marine against the day when we shall be dependent on it for our food supplies, materials of war and movement of troops."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.