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Show TEUTON FOOD SUPPLY (MIES TO SLUMP COPENHAGEN, via London, March 28. The result of the recent stock taking tak-ing of the grain, potatoes and other foodstuffs was so unfavorable as to cause general apprehension, according to the Berlin Vorawerts," which quotes remarks made before the reichstag committee com-mittee on food by the Socialist deputy, E'bert. The Vorawerts is the only Berlin Ber-lin paper which carries an account of the proceedings before the committee. According to this report, Deputy Ebert said that an inventory showed that the 1916 yield of bread grains was only 500,000 'tons, or fifteen pounds per capital above the 1915 harvest, a harvest which had been regarded as almost al-most calamitous. Earlier reports on the 1916 harvest had described it as good, and a rationing scheme was based on an estimated excess of 1,000,000 tons. The reduction in the visible supply by one-half explains the cut in bread rations ra-tions which was announced by the authorities au-thorities as soon as the results of the census were at hand. Deputy Ebert added that a similar deficit apparently existed in other products prod-ucts and declared that part of the missing miss-ing food stuff's had undoubtedly vanished van-ished down tho throats of cattle and hogs which were fed on illegal fodder by the farmers. He demanded that everything ev-erything imported from Rumania be reserved re-served for human consumption. ' LONDON, March 23. Adolph von Batocki, president of the G-erman food regulation board, in a statement to the reichstag committee, admitted that the compensations for the reduction of the bread ration -were not sufficient, but declared de-clared no other solution was possible, according to a ueutrai iews cuspatcn from Amsterdam. Despite all the experience the food administration authorities had gained and the knowledge of conditions thev had acquired, the supplies, continued Herr von Batocki, had been too highly estimated, but the jeriousness of the situation did not justify either sharp criticism or Utopian proposals. The supplies of pigs were not sufficient suffi-cient to permit the slaughter of the. number which strict necessity required, the food dictator is quoted n declaring, declar-ing, and. therefore, the reserves of cattle cat-tle would have to be drawn upon considerably. con-siderably. Increased production was impossible, owing to the lack of labor, leaving out of consideration the enormous enor-mous difficulties of transportation. In any case, the speaker added, it was impossible im-possible to live without potatoes and bread, and the agriculturists must be made fully aware of their obligations. |