| Show PROBLEM OF FOOD AGITATES BRITAIN draws upon whole world to supply its tables washington bombs bullets and battleships battleship sl As 1938 1933 opens to the worldwide anvil chorus of munitions manufacture england faces not on ly an estimated armaments bill of a billion and a half dollars for the coming year but the less belligerent in sound but equally vital problem of food for the island kingdom is dependent on overseas imports for the major share of her provi in peace or war sea I 1 lanes anes ry be kept clear to feed her float ing millions at london docks the worlds s sl I 1 aps unload a never ending stream of foodstuffs ranging from austra lian mutton to jamaica bananas from persian dates to brazilian cof fee says the national geographic society here are facilities in cellars sheds caves and warehouses to swallow a million tons of goods at one time As custodians of this huge larder the port of london authority not only acts as middleman weighing grading and sorting va rious commodities but maintains in the interests of sanitation and ity a busy corps of inspectors lab oratory men and experts in various lines use modern facilities there are specially constructed cranes and mechanical carriers for handling unwieldy or odd shaped packages giant chutes for flow ing rivers of gram grain refrigerating plants and underground vaults for wine whose temperature is careful ly regulated to preserve rare and precious vintages from distant lands in warehouses exuding the faint sweetish odor of an old apothecary shop are stored spices from ceylon the east indies and malaya here come bales of cinnamon in the form of quills resembling dried sticks and nutmegs packed in regu lation sized containers labeled sing acore boxes and literally tons of pepper london dock alone handles a thousand tons of pepper annually a lot of sneezes in any country to satisfy carnivorous carni verous english men 70 per cent of the country s meat imports representing some tons are bandied handled at london each year to provide another prime staple in diet bread england buys wheat I 1 from five continents with cana canada da australia and argentina chief con I 1 tribu tors in one recent year im ported grains grams including barley oats corn and beans totaled more than two million tons of which I 1 nearly a million and a half were of wheat presented with such astro nor figures you realize how london has grown and how eng land s food demands have in creased only a couple of centuries ago wheat which along with other small grains the english call corn was imported into england in almost negligible quantities time was when small grains were actual ly the island s leading export favors own colonies although a lavish buyer now of the world s farm products john bull naturally favors trade with his own dominions and colonies and has has nursed to maturity many a once infant commodity business in some distant part of the empire in 1880 london welcomed the first shi shipment of frozen meat from australia lat er at a cost of a million and a half dollars the port authority built a sorting warehouse and cold storage plant designed especially for the australian and new zealand meat trade today the port reaps the benefits as capacious holds of snub nosed british merchant ships disgorge a steady flood of such varied items as butter cheese and apples of new zealand rum and sugar from barbados grapefruit and molasses from the them west indies onions from egypt coffee from kenya tea pineapples cocoa coconuts from india and the straits settle ments labeled with the strange characters of foreign tongues come also I 1 consignments postmarked anywhere from rom of soviet russia to pernambuco fernambuco brazil there are argentine beefsteaks beef steaks greek currants and fresh fruit and vegetables brandies and wines from france spam spain and portugal italy offers olive oil and canned goods and from north american ports still more canned goods fruit fish and gram grain from china and japan mong among other shipments come soya scans and rice and of course tea by the shipload for tea has played in an important part in the story of england s sea borne trade from sail to steam over a period of nearly years |
