to each trader a fixed percentage of his supplies in a datum year. Tea, on the other hand, though never rationed nationally, came to be distributed on a registration basis, i.e. in accordance with the actual population in 1918. In addition to articles for human consumption, feeding stuffs for animals were also controlled by the Ministry of Food, and in the latter part of 1918 were brought under a formal rationing system; this system hardly had time to come into full operation when the war ended.
The first national ration book had a currency of 16 weeks, and was succeeded by a fresh issue with no material change except an extension of currency to six months on Nov. 4 1918. After May 3 1919 coupons were abolished, but a limited system of rationing without coupons, by means first of the old ration books and later of identification cards, was continued for many months. Bacon and ham were freed from rationing in July 1918, lard in the following Dec., margarine in Feb. 1919, jam in April 1919, and meat in Dec. 1919. With the freeing of butter in May 1920 and sugar in Nov. 1920 rationing came to an end.
The foregoing sketch applies only to Great Britain. No rationing of meat or fats was attempted in Ireland, but a sugar distribution scheme, on the lines of the first British scheme, was put into force in Ireland by the Irish Food Control committee under powers conferred by the Food Controller.
National Rationing Scheme.—The Rationing Scheme, as finally established in July 1918, was a uniform national system administered by autonomous local committees, and having as its main features the use of individual ration books, the tie of each customer to a particular retailer, and the systematic supply to each retailer of the quantities required to meet the needs of his registered customers. A single application form had to be filled in by each household and forwarded to the Food Office, which thereupon issued a separate ration book for each member of the household. The ration book was a book containing different coloured leaves for various foods. Each leaf consisted of (a) a counterfoil to be signed, detached and given to the retailer with whom the holder of the book wished to register, and (b) coupons for each week's supply to be detached by the retailer when actual purchases were made. On registration of the customer the retailer besides detaching the counterfoil was required to enter his name and address on the appropriate part of the ration book. In addition to the leaves for foods rationed, such as sugar or meat, there were spare leaves which could be used for rationing other foods at short notice, and one of these was in fact adapted to deal with bread should the occasion ever arise. The book contained also a reference leaf, which served as an application form for subsequent issues. There were special books for children under six years of age (who got half rations of meat), books authorizing supplementary rations of bacon for manual workers and growing boys, and special books or leaves of coupons for invalids, travellers, vegetarians, Jews, soldiers and sailors on leave, and other particular classes.
The tie of each customer to a particular retailer was the essence of the scheme, the main safeguard against fraud, and the basis of distribution. Behind rationing as the public saw it—a paper affair of application forms, counterfoils and coupons—was a not less extensive and intricate machinery for distribution of the appropriate supplies through all the complex channels of trade week by week to every retailer in the country. The precise form of this machinery was naturally different for different articles of food; the common feature in all cases was that the retailer had to make an indent on a wholesaler in accordance with the number of persons registered with him, and each wholesaler in turn made application to a primary supplier (manufacturer, importer or other) based upon and accompanied by copies of the retailer's indents. The supplies flowed downwards through the various channels of trade in accordance with the applications and indents. The retailer's indents had in some cases to be approved in advance by the Food Control committees; in all cases their correctness was liable to be checked by examination of their registers of customers and of the counterfoils detached from the ration books.
In the case of meat, where the civilian supplies were mainly homegrown, there was needed in addition an elaborate organization, under Livestock Commissioners appointed by the Ministry of Food, for controlling the bringing of beasts to market, and their slaughtering and distribution, and for supplementing home supplies from the reserves of imported meat. In the case not only of meat, but of butter and margarine, there was a further difficulty that the food was highly perishable and the retailers could not carry reserve stocks.
The importance of the tie to the retailer became apparent when it came to be realized that it would be perfectly possible to have a rationing scheme without coupons at all, if every individual consumer had to register at a particular shop and the supplies to that shop were adjusted strictly to the registration. The value of the detachable coupon was, first, in enabling the retailer to know whether he had already given a particular customer his supply for that week, and second, in affording a check upon the retailer, who could be required to make returns of supplies received, sold or retained, and to account for the supplies sold by producing an equivalent number of coupons. The staff collected for central rationing was used from April 1918 onwards to check the retailers' accounts by counting the coupons they had collected.
Apart from the points mentioned the technical details of most importance in the rationing scheme were the following:—
(1) The fixing of the ration for uncooked butcher's meat by value rather than by weight. Under the London scheme and the general meat scheme of April 1918 each card had for each week three coupons entitling the holder to buy 5d. worth per coupon, i.e. 1s. 3d. worth altogether of uncooked butcher's meat. As the price per lb. for each cut of meat was regulated by an elaborate schedule having regard to quality, to proportion of bone and to other matters, the fixing of the ration by value afforded an automatic means of adjusting the ration according to the cut selected. This device proved quite satisfactory and was continued in all subsequent schemes.
(2) The classification of “establishments,” ranging from prisons and asylums to schools, hotels, living-in establishments, tea-shops and seaside boarding houses. With the single exception of the problem of the “self-supplier” this is technically the most difficult part of rationing, and the relatively efficient treatment of establishments in the British system was a considerable element in its general success. It is probably true to say that Britain was the only European country which made serious inroads on the comfort of living in first-class hotels or lunching at first-class clubs during the war.
(3) The provision for transfers of registration from one retailer to another, or from one district to another. This part of the scheme was framed with considerable care; the widespread organization of the Food Control committees bringing a food office within easy reach of every considerable number of inhabitants, and the reasonable latitude allowed to their officers in dealing with local and personal emergencies, prevented registration formalities from becoming intolerable.
The problems of “self-supply " and “direct supply," i.e. of persons producing food for themselves or obtaining food direct from the producer and not through a trader, arose in Great Britain only to a limited extent, and cannot be said to have been fully solved. Restrictions were imposed but were not pressed to the utmost.
The articles rationed and the amounts allowed at various dates are set out in the appended table.
Comparison with Other Countries.—The problem of rationing was simpler in Britain than in most European countries, and far simpler than in Germany and Austria, for the following main reasons: first, the deficiency of supplies below normal was less; second, the bulk of the British supplies were imported, not home-grown; third, the supplies of cereals could be and were kept at a point high enough to allow rationing of bread stuffs to be avoided altogether.
The difference in supplies is clearly illustrated by a table given in the article Food Supply and published by the Ministry
