to obtain that quantity. It is thus a problem both of restriction
and of distribution, and the success of any rationing system may
be judged even more by the degree to which the positive side
is carried out, than by the completeness with which the prohibi-
tion upon excessive consumption is enforced.

In this respect the British system of food rationing had for
the reasons mentioned below a relatively high measure of success
and is therefore described here in some detail. The modified
system adopted in the United States is dealt with in a final sec-
tion. Besides food and feeding stuffs for animals, fuel and light
were rationed in the United Kingdom, and both these and many
other things, such as clothing, tobacco, matches and housing
accommodation, were rationed in various enemy and neutral
countries in Europe.

BRITISH FOOD RATIONING

Historical Sketch. The earliest steps to the introduction of
compulsory rationing in Great Britain were taken in relation
to sugar. Since the first month of the war sugar had been
subject to Government control, under a Royal Commission on
the Sugar Supplies, constituted in Aug. 1914. By the end of



1916 the quantity of sugar that could be obtained for the United
Kingdom as a whole began to fall far short of the public demand,
and in the first part of 1917 this reduced quantity was being
distributed on the basis of giving so far as possible to each trader,
whether wholesale or retail, 50% of the quantity which he had
received in 1915, it then being left to the retailer to divide his
supplies as best he could among his customers, subject to a
limit of price. This simple system was necessarily very imperfect
in action, and grew steadily less satisfactory owing to changes
in the distribution of the population. With the development of
the munitions campaign new towns sprang up as at Gretna or
Birtley; old towns like Coventry or Sheffield or Woolwich
doubled or trebled their population or acquired new suburbs;
from many country districts and provincial or university towns
in the south of England the population ebbed away. Distribution
of sugar or any other article of food on the 1915 basis became
manifestly inequitable.

During the first half of 1917, while the acute difficulties of the
new munition areas were being relieved by temporary palliatives,
such as the dispatch of additional supplies after enquiry by
inspectors in each case, schemes for recasting the whole system of
distribution on the basis of a complete fresh registration of the
population were worked out and several alternative schemes were
submitted to the War Cabinet in June 1917. The Cabinet
adopted one of the alternatives, under wh'ch each household was
to be invited to register for sugar with a particular retailer, to
whom supplies of sugar would be sent in accordance with the
numbers and size of the households registered with him, at a
specified ration per head, but under which there would be
nothing to prevent a retailer from using any surplus sugar in his
hands to supply others, or to prevent persons from getting sugar,
if they could, in excess of the ration, or from any retailer other
than the one with whom their household was registered.

The scheme, while applied in the first instance only to sugar,
involved the setting up of extensive administrative machinery,
which could thereafter be used both for rationing other foods and
for any other local work of the Ministry. This machinery
consisted in essence of some 1,800 Food Control Committees
appointed by the local authorities, but with their expenditure
met from national funds, together with Divisional Food Commis-
sioners appointed directly by the Ministry of Food for the 15
main divisions into which the country was divided, and having
the special function of supervising, assisting, and coordinating
the work of the committees. Immediately after the presentation
of these proposals to the Cabinet (June 1917) the first food
controller, Lord Devonport, resigned his office, and the proposals
were approved by the Cabinet, subject to their receiving the
subsequent assent of his successor, Lord Rhondda. The latter
did in fact assent, and proceeded at once with the schemes both
for redistribution of sugar and for divisional and local organiza-
tion. The i, 800 local sanitary authorities in Great Britain were
invited by circular (issued Aug. 2 1917) to appoint Food Control
Committees, and did so during Aug. and the first part of
September. Each committee set up a local " Food Office," usually
in one of the municipal buildings, appointed an " Executive
Officer," and during Sept. and Oct. issued to each household in
the district a sugar card showing the number of persons in the
household, and having a counterfoil to be detached and deposited
with the retailer from whom the householder proposed to get
his sugar. There was thus carried out a complete registration of
the population by households in each district. The intention was
to bring the distribution of sugar to each district on to the new
(population) basis, as opposed to the old (1915 trade) basis as
from Jan. i 1918.

The sugar scheme, however, was never brought into force in
the form approved by the Cabinet. In that form it was a
distribution not a rationing scheme, was based on households
not individuals, and deliberately made no formal provision for
transfer of individuals from one household to another, or for
persons too migratory to form part of any household. An
alternative scheme for rationing by means of individual cards,
entitling the holder to a fixed quantity and no more, had been



RATIONING



251



submitted to the Cabinet in June 1917 but was rejected, because
at that time the Cabinet was not prepared for rationing as such.
It seemed doubtful whether the public would submit to compul-
sory restriction of their food consumption; there was further
an objection to giving the enemy the encouragement of seeing
Britain apparently driven to extremities by the success of the
submarine campaign.

By the end of Sept. it became clear that the public were
prepared and anxious for definite rationing, that is to say for a
system under which nobody could get more than a certain
quantity and everybody could be certain of getting that. In
Oct. and the following months accordingly the scheme was
entirely revised and provision made for the household sugar
cards to be exchanged for individual cards, and for any person
who belonged to no household to obtain a document which
should be the sole title to sugar supplies.

Another and more drastic change was also contemplated,
namely, the substitution of a single centralized register of sugar
consumers, that is to say of the whole population, for the 1,800
separate local registers which had resulted from the registration
of households under the original scheme. The first steps to the
formation of this central register in the Imperial Institute
buildings at South Kensington were taken in Nov. 1917, and
a good deal of preliminary work was done. The change over from
local to central registration, however, was only to be made
gradually, and was in fact never completed. After the success
of the schemes described below for rationing fats and meat
on the basis of local registration (Feb.- April 1918), the idea
of making a central register of the population was abandoned.
The public, though at times mildly puzzled by the changes of
the cards with which they had to deal, remained for the most
part unconscious of the successive revolutionary changes in the
ideas which dominated the administration of rationing.

The scheme, which had been started as one for the distribution
of sugar to households in July 1917, came into force as a scheme
of rationing by individuals on Jan. i 1918 without a hitch. The
reserve stocks at the disposal of the Sugar Commission were at
that time considerable, and, since sugar is not highly perishable,
the Commision had been able to distribute those stocks widely
and to provide each retailer with an ample margin to meet
contingencies. With insignificant exceptions, every person in
every part of the country was able from the outset to get week
by week the ration of half a pound of sugar to which his ration
document entitled him.

Meanwhile, in the last quarter of 1917, the public became
aware of serious shortages of other commodities, in particular
tea, margarine, bacon and cheese. These shortages led to the
appearance of queues at the shops and threatened to arouse
grave industrial unrest. The centralized rationing scheme which
was then the accepted policy in London could not come into
force for many months. On the other hand the Food Control
committees were established and at work; it was natural for
Lord Rhondda to ask the committees to deal with the difficulty
of the queues in the interim as best they could. One or two of
the committees, among whom the Birmingham committee was
conspicuous, started their own schemes for registering consumers
with retailers and controlling the distribution of supplies to
the retailers by the exercise of powers of requisition granted by
the Ministry. General provision for such schemes was made by
an Order of the Food Controller of Dec. 22 1917, which was
called a Food Control Committees (Local Distribution) Order,
but was in fact an order authorizing committees to introduce
complete local rationing of any or every article, subject to
approval of the scheme by the Ministry of Food. An important
memorandum issued to the committees on Dec. 29 1917 outlined
model schemes and gave advice and suggestions. The formula-
tion of local schemes in congested industrial areas at once showed
the impracticability of purely local action. It was clearly
impossible for several Food Control committees in neighbouring
districts forming part of a single industrial town to have
different rationing systems, or for some to ration while the
others did not. It was equally impossible for local committees



to control the distribution of foods, such as frozen meat or
margarine, which are stored or manufactured at a few main
centres for distribution throughout the country. These dif-
ficulties came to the fore at once in London and its suburbs.

At a general meeting of executive officers of the London
committees held on Jan. 4 1918, it was resolved to have a
single rationing scheme for the whole Metropolitan area and
to ask the Ministry of Food to prepare such a scheme for
approval by the committees as a whole. It became clear almost
immediately that no convenient break could be made between
London and the districts immediately surrounding it, and the
home counties were included. The scheme was originally
asked for to deal with fats (margarine and butter) alone, but
the meat shortage became acute at a moment's notice in Jan.,
and estimates of the quantities available in the first quarter of
1918 made it imperative to include meat as well.

A scheme covering both fats and meat was worked out
accordingly by the Ministry, approved at another meeting of
executive officers, embodied in a " London and Home Counties
(Rationing Scheme) Order," and brought into force on Feb. 25
1918 for an area containing something like 10,000,000 people.
It involved the issue of two ration cards to each individual, one
with detachable coupons for meat, and one for butter and mar-
garine, without coupons, but with numbered spaces in which the
retailer marked off the customer's purchases as they were made;
each card had a counterfoil to be deposited with a retailer,
and the supplies were distributed to retailers on the basis
of the counterfoils deposited with them. The scheme had an
almost melodramatic success. The London queues, which, ac-
cording to the observations made by the Metropolitan Police,
had included, in each of the weeks just before rationing, over
1,300,000 people, fell to 191,000 in the first week and to 15,000
in the fourth. Before rationing about 550,000 persons stood
in food queues every Saturday in London; on the first Sat-
urday after rationing the number was 110,000, on the next
24,000, and on the fourth Saturday under 7,000. In effect
the queues for meat and fats disappeared altogether; there re-
mained only queues for cheese, jam and other unrationed
articles. The success of rationing was one of organization; the
total amount of meat and fats available for consumption and
actually consumed in London was not greater after rationing
than before. It was simply better distributed and made
obtainable without the labour of standing in a queue.

Meanwhile local schemes under the Order of Dec. 22 1917 had
made considerable headway in the diminution or abolition of
queues for butter and margarine outside London and the home
counties. The local rationing of meat, however, presented
insoluble difficulties, and even before the introduction and
success of the London scheme the decision had been taken to
introduce a national scheme for meat rationing as soon as
possible. This was done on April 7.

The extension of meat rationing to the whole country was
as successful as its introduction in London. The queues dis-
appeared and everyone everywhere got his ration. This result
decided incidentally the fate of the sugar scheme. The attempt
to form in London a central ration register of the population
was abandoned; the staff, till they could be dispersed, were
used on other work in the checking of coupons, and arrangements
were made to include sugar in the uniform scheme of national
rationing through local committees which was introduced on
July 14 1918, when each member of the public received a single
book with different coloured leaves of uniform coupons for meat
and bacon, fats, sugar, and lard. These, with jam included for
the first time in Nov. 1918, were the only articles of food which
were rationed nationally, i.e. throughout Great Britain. In
addition tea was rationed in most of the great industrial centres
under local schemes, and came within an ace of being included
under the national scheme of July 1918. Cheese was rationed
by a number of committees, but the varying consumption in
different parts of the country and by different classes of consumers
made any uniform system difficult; it continued to the end
to be distributed on a " trade basis," that is to say by giving



252



RATIONING



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 tic 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 cou-
pons 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 dif-
ferent 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 down-
wards 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 counter-
foils detached from the ration books.



In the case of meat, where the civilian supplies were mainly
homegrown, there was needed in addition an elaborate organiza-
tion, 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 tic 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 sd. worth per coupon,
i.e. is. 3d. worth altogether of uncooked butcher's meat. As
the price per Ib. 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 consider-
able 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 wide-
spread 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



RATIONING



253



of Food at the end of 1918, comparing the estimated consumption
per head of certain essential foods in the United Kingdom,
Germany and Holland before and during the war. Another
striking contrast emerges in the report of a committee appointed
at the Ministry of Food at the end of 1917 to prepare a com-
prehensive scale of rations covering meat, cereals, fats and

Rationing in Great Britain 191720.



Article.


Period of Rationing
(whether local or
national).


Amount of Weekly
Ration per Head.


Sugar .


Nationally from


8 oz. Dec. 31 1917 to




Dec. 31 1917 to


Jan. 27 1919; there-




Nov. 29 1920


after sometimes 12






oz. and sometimes 8






oz. with a drop to 6






oz. for a few weeks






in Sept.-Oct. 1919,






and again Jan.-






March 1920.


Butter and Mar-


Locally from Dec. 14


5 or 6 oz. for both fats


garine


1917 to July 1918


under national




(38,000,000) ; there-


scheme. The Lon-




after nationally to


don scheme started




Feb. 16 1919 for


with a ration of 4




both fats, and to


oz. The separate




May 30 1920 for


butter ration after




butter alone.


Feb. 1919 varied






from I to 2 oz.


Lard


Locally from Jan.


2 oz. nationally and in




1918 (1,500,000);


most local schemes.




nationally from






July 14 1918 to






Dec. 16 1918.




Meat (Uncooked


London and home


Under the London


Butcher's Meat)


counties from Feb.


Scheme 3 coupons




25 1918 (10,000,-


entitling to 4d.




ooo) with a few


worth each, or is.




other local schemes ;


altogether (about I




nationally from