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[page 56]
109
(9).
directed against us) must organise the whole Nation. We must reckon afresh with the facts, get a new grasp of the manner of victory and prepare ourselves to meet drastic sacrifices.
It is not a bit of use ASKING British people to make sacrifices. They are not united enough to take much action until they actually FEEL the pinch. Through no fault of their own they have led unordered existences and have known no discipline in their Civil life. There is no time now to start in and teach them, we must legislate in whatever direction is required and put a policeman there to see that the law is carried out. First the food supply must be assured. A good start has been made limiting the price to be paid for meals in restaurantes. This does not, on the face of it, strike one as being a remedy for conserving the food supply, but to a certain extent it is. Without restaurantes the "a la carte" menu was the most popular and incidentally the most expensive. At many a London restaurante a man could, without being a glutton, eat a meal which, exclusive of wines, would cost him say 25/-. Now it is not only the food he eats that he is paying for but the food which has been prepared for him to select from and which is wasted if he does not choose it. It was not unusual to see 50 or more items on an "a la carte" menu and at the end of the day perhaps only half of these had been asked for and then possibly some of them only once or twice. Some of the courses like egg dishes and grills would not be cooked until ordered but still the waste must have been enormous. By limiting the price for meals the proprietors of restaurantes will have to bring down their selection lists to meet it. I fancy the price for dinner has been fixed at 5/-, and supposing we take the case I have instanced above of a 25/- meal chosen from a 50 dish menu; that will mean that the proprietor will in future have to limit his customers' selection to 10 items - a saving of 40 dishes on the country's food supply. All this perhaps is only a small matter, but its a start. Meatless days