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Show GERMAN PEOPLE UNABLE TO 30! ENOUGH FOOD Associated Press Correspondent Corre-spondent Finds Conditions Have Changed for Worse in Five Months. (Correspondence of the Associated Press.) STOCKHOLM, Jan. 20. Food conditions condi-tions In Germany have' changed greatly for the worse in the last five months. The correspondent of the Associated Press, who had been away from Germany Ger-many since the first week in August, has just returned from a stay or tnree weeks in Berlin. He found that many staples of food had altogether disappeared dis-appeared frorrS the markets, others hud grown so dear that they are beyond the reach of any but the well-to-do, the daily allowance of potatoes had been reduced to ten ounces, and that either a shortage of dour or a disordered distribution ot it atnon" the bakers had resulted in long rows of buyers standing for hours in front of the bakeries. Maximum prices of foodstuffs controlled bv the government are still very low for potatoes and bread and comparatively low for meats. Potatoes cost only 2 cents the standard bushel of sixty pounds, and bread a little less than 3Vz cents a pound. But the potato allowance is insufficient for persons who have little but bread and potatoes to eat, and has to be eked out with turnips. Eggs Very Scarce. It had been hoped to allow one egg a person each two weeks in Greater Berlin, but the last one-egg allowance was made some five weeks ago and another is not promised until February. When the correspondent cor-respondent left Berlin in August, it was still possible to buy cheese. Since the end of August there has been no cheese , on the market. It is said that considerable consid-erable quantities are being imported from i Holland, but it goes apparently to the front, except for small quantities allowed the restaurants and hotels. Another serious reduction of available foodstuffs has been the expropriation for control by the government of all canned vegetables. Four or five weeks ago the dealers were permitted to sell a fractional part of their stock, but only two cans on each bread card, permission to sell a further part is expected to be granted aeain soon, but the dealers are to be compelled to open each can before selling it, so as to force the buyers to consume it at once and not hoard it. Tiny Meat Allowance. The weekly allowance of meat of all kinds In the greater Berlin municipalities municipali-ties runs from hi to Si ounces. The cheapest varieties cost about 60 cents a pound, the dearest 72 cents. One of the most serious deprivations continues to be the lack of fats and oils. The weekly allowance of butter and margarine together is little less than three ounces a person. Oil is so expensive' ex-pensive' that it is out of the reach of the great majority. The Associated Press con espcMiuenc pmu tui o-uuui. um- thirds of a pint of hazel nut oil to be used for frying. Goose fat costs $4. SO a can of 17 3-5 ounces and is the only fat, except vegetable oils, that can be bought without a card. This insufficiency of fats in the daily ration shows itself in an almost continuous continu-ous feeling of hunger. The correspondent, correspon-dent, experiencing this himself In the first days of his visit, remarked on it. "I feel hungry all the time," said the person addressed. Bitter Complaints. Extending his investigations, the correspondent cor-respondent heard similar expressions from all sides. The most bitter complaints came from soldiers at home. When the writer last visited the front, in July, the men's rations were ample in every respect, re-spect, and there is no reason to believe the same is not true today. The soldier at home thus notices the difference more keenly than do those who have had gradually to accustom themselves to one deprivation after another. There is a deadly monotony about meals m the average household. Breakfast Break-fast generally consists of rolls, marmalade marma-lade (often made of pumpkins), and a decoction of roasted acorns, rye, chicory and what-not that goes by the name of coffee. There is no real coffee left. Some tea at high prices still is to be had, but the poorer people drink a brew of linden blossoms, raspberry leaves, or leaves of other shrubs or trees. For the "second breakfast' there is dry bread. Dinner Menu. Dinner generally consists of boiled potatoes po-tatoes with salt, some kind of boiled vegetable end, on perhaps two days of the week, a tiny piece of meat. Fish takes the plac of meat on other davs, unless one can buy goose at $1.56 a pound (they cost ?2 a pound just before Christmas, a duck at SI. 44 a pound, a turkey at $1.32 a pound, or a hen at $1.08 or 51.20 a pound. Comparatively little game comes on the markets, apparently goine to the hotels and restaurants. Supper is the problem in the average household. Generally there are no potatoes pota-toes left over from noon, and, if there arp there is no fat In which to fry them The usual German supper before 'the war-consisted war-consisted ot cold meats, sausage, cheese bread and butter and beer. There is no meat, no cheese and no sausage, no butter but-ter on four or five days of the week, no more bottled beer, and many saloonkeepers saloon-keepers refuse to sell beer to be consumed off the premises. The beer, moreover, is all but undrinkable. Costly and Monotonous. There remain, then, only bread and fish, fresh, smoked, dried or canned. And here the problem of cost is ad tied to that of monotony. The writer paid in Berlin Jl.20 a pound for ordinary lake trout and S4 cents a pound for small fresh-water bass. Dried salted fish costs 36 cents a nound and smoked eei $1.92 to $2.40. Smoked goosebreast costs $3 to $3.50 a pound ani boiled shrimps are 72 cents. Once in every four or five weeks the citv authorities place on the market small tin's of sardines, one of which may be .bought on presentation of the municipal "lebens mi - telkarte" or provision card. Each family, no matter of how many members. h;iS only one of these carrls. The sa '-dines thus sold may be had for about 4S cents for the small tin. In the open market they cost from 67 cents for sardines in tomato sauce to 71 cents for sardines in oil. One smoked herring, from six to e:ght inches long, costs 20 to 22 cents. A ca n of alleged shredded veal bought bv the correspondent was more than half' gelatine and cost 72 cents. Its ?rnss weight ""as ore pound. Pepper costs 5 a pound and small r.visins $1.0?. Saccharine dissolved in water wa-ter has '.a ken the place of sugar for sweetening coffee an3 tea tn private homes as well as in rests urants. Milk is ord i-narily i-narily available in limited quantities only for invalids and very aged persons and smail children. |