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Show VIOLATE FOOD RULES Illicit Trade Is Spreading in Germany. Smuggling and Usury Increase Courts Crowded With Those Who Break Laws, Coblenz. Illicit trade in food, with Its attendant evils of smuggling and usury, Is on the Increase throughout Germany, according to newspaper accounts. ac-counts. The rationing system has never been abandoned even in the occupied areas of the Rhineland. and some of the newspapers contend that the average aver-age individual cannot subsist on the amount of food issued. The authorities author-ities are making ever? effort to check the illegal traffic in foods of all kinds, mi: the courts are crowded day after I ''ay. . Smuggling of potatoes Is being car- ried on this winter In all parts of Germany Ger-many on a scale greate" than in war time. Germany produced an excellent potato crop this year, and the authorities author-ities are trying to save it from falling Into the hands of the speculators. Well-to-do people have been going to Bavaria from Prussia, Wuerttemherg and Thuringia to buy potatoes, eggs and fats, for which the fanners j charged exorbitant prices. This I worked a hardship on the poorer people, peo-ple, who could not compete with them. Living appears to be cheaper In Havana Ha-vana than elsewhere in Germany. Butter has been selling there at 5 marks a pound, compared with 30 I marks in Berlin. Ecgs are quoted at 2,"i pfennigs each, while in Berlin they cost 1.73 marks apiece. Kggs In the j occupied urea have been bringing from 2 to 2.."0 marks each this winter, hut are very scarce at any price. Meat Is also reported as fairly plentiful plen-tiful in Bavaria, although in all other states this form of food is virtually unpurchasable by householders through regular channels excepting once or twice each month, when the authorities author-ities permit a few ounces to be distributed dis-tributed by the card system to Uie Individuals. In-dividuals. Most of the hotels throughout Germany Ger-many continue to serve meat three or four days each week, however. The proprietors say they obtain this from Holland and that this does not violate the food regulations. |