Our Food Prices and Germanys

This report in the Kildare Observer on 23rd January 1915, looked at the delicate item of food prices in the UK and Germany.

Families were feeling the effect of very high inflation and one source of encouragement was that the German’s were having an even worse time of it.

"OUR FOOD PRICES AND GERMANY’S

At the beginning of the war - during the first month or so - we heard a lot more about the prospective increase in the prices of foodstuffs than we do at present, the explanation being, doubtless, the circulation of disquieting rumours or estimates from unofficial or unreliable sources as to the possibility of our maintaining ourselves of these countries without the assistance of our enemies - Germany and Austria - and as a result of the partial destruction of the industry of France and Russia, and the almost complete annihilation of industry in Belgium.
But one thing soon became obvious to the scaremonger wise-acres- they, like most of use, had completely under-estimated the resources of the British Empire. It is now evident that while our Navy is paramount on seas we need never fear the necessity of England capitulating through lack of foodstuffs - we can never be starved out. Starving out, it is well to remember, is a quite legitimate and an extremely effective weapon in warfare. A county must depend almost entirely on its food supply in terms of war, not alone food for its people, but also for its livestock, and what is scarcely of lesser importance pabulum in the way of munitions of war; in fact, supplies of all kinds - of food, of clothing, of gold, of silver, of copper, about which we heard so much arising out of the American Note and England’s reply thereto, and even of paper

Realising this we are the better enabled to recognise and to acknowledge the debt we owe, each and every one amongst us, to our gallant sons who to make up one of our most essential and glorious Imperial assets, the British Navy. "That’s the secret of our power", and when we feel disposed to ask, with the sang froid and ignorance of men who don’t know what they are talking about, how it was the Germans were able to steal upon bombard the Yorkshire coast and clear off themselves unscathed; when we feel that there was something lacking to our side, or when some of us feel disposed - a very few, indeed - to regard the British Navy as having failed in its work in this respect the unreasonableness of our position and the injustice of our complaint is brought home to us on remembering what we owe those whose efforts we may feel inclined to belittle, for the food we eat, or, at all events, for the fact that our food is more plentiful and costs us less than theirs is costing the Germans at the moment. At the moment he would be a foolish man who would argue that there is not a necessity to conserve our supplies, and to prepare for eventualities, for practical certainties, in the near future in the way of scarcity of food and of, consequently, dearer prices. On the contrary, we say unhesitatingly that the farmer who increases his tillage appreciably is not alone showing a high degree of wisdom, as far as his personal property is concerned, but is also doing a single service to the State. In the British Board of Trade "Labour Gazette" there is an interesting and instructive survey of retail food prices which shows that in the United Kingdom there is at the present moment an increase of 19 per cent in large towns and a 17 per cent in small towns on the prices charged in July last. Sugar, meat, flour and tea have all increased in price, and in many towns, such as Naas, for example, we know that the increase does not cease at the line of demarcation between necessity and a desire for higher profits, as is evidenced by the additional price of meat for one thing.

At the beginning of January the survey referred to shows that the price of granulated sugar in the United Kingdom was about two-thirds higher than before the war. Flour has gone up from 18 to 23 per cent, the increase in Germany being 33.3 per cent; butter from 12 to 16 per cent, as compared with 17.3 in Germany", bread from 14 to 18 per cent as against 27.7 in Germany. Mutton shows increases according to the different classes, varying from 5 to 28 per cent, while in Germany it shows a decrease of 4.4 per cent; potatoes have increased in the United Kingdom by from 11 to 22 per cent, while Germany there has been an increase of 12.5 per cent. It is not easy to assign a reason for the fact that while in Germany almost everything shows a tremendous increase in price since the war, mutton is cheaper there than before, and dearer in the United Kingdom. The explanation may be traceable to increased taxation on foodstuffs, a distinction being drawn perhaps in the matter of live stock. We do not know. It will be remembered that the British Government bought up all the stocks available at the beginning of the war, and while this may have prevented an undue inflation in price at the time, the position has not been much benefited since, taking into consideration the fact that sugar has advanced from 66 to 69 per cent.

Our food is undoubtedly costing us more than it did before the war, but we may console ourselves with the reflection that things are not as bad as they might be, and certainly not as bad as they are in Germany. It is too soon yet to hazard the hope that we have reached the high water mark. Despite every precaution, that must largely depend on the duration of the war, and the duration of the war is equally dependent on the vigilance of the Navy and of the Government in straining every nerve to prevent a maintenance of the German nation by neutral countries which are not above, "making their bit" by smuggling food and other necessaries into our enemies’ countries.

More Stories of Spies in England

Here are some more reports published in the Times on 17th August 1914, with regard to the action of spies.

It is obvious that not all relate to spies, but the story of the boat across the Medway is priceless soldiers firing at policemen who couldn’t hear them is great.

“Sentry Wounded at Brooklands

Private Robertson of the Royal West Surrey Regiment, while guarding the aviation sheds at Brooklands Aerodrome early yesterday morning, was shot by a supposed spy. Robertson stated that he challenged the man three times and the fired. The man immediately returned the fire, wounding Robertson severely in the arm. The aerodrome was searched without success, although a man was seen to disappear in the woods as the motor car conveying Robertson was on its way to hospital.

While patrolling the railway on Friday night after the last train to Portsmouth had passed, two members of the Civil Guard at Worthing found a body on one of their comrades, named A.G. Wright, lying by the side of the line a few yards from the edge of the station platform, with a fractured skull. It is believed that he may have been struck by an open carriage door of a train entering the station.

A police patrol which was rowing in a boat across the Medway was fired on by a guard of soldiers stationed on Rochester Bridge. It is stated that the police did not hear the challenge of the soldiers who, on the other hand, could not see the occupants of the boat. No one was hit.

The occupants of a compartment on a train from Whitstable which reached Faversham on Saturday morning stated that the train had been shot at just as it entered the marshland at Graveney. The windows were broken.

A railway “chair” 13 inches long, was found on Saturday near Glenboig on the main railway line, over which many military trains are running at present. It was cut in two, the larger half having been carried yards as the result of an impact with an express train.”

German Spies in England.

This news item was reported in The Times on 17th August 1914.

The cases of spying ranged from being suspicious around Belfast Docks with a knowledge of submarines, to considering oneself to be English having lived in England for a number of year. Although the exact details of the case is not know, 3 months hard labour for not registering himself, seems a bit excess for Wilhelm Stiewe.


"German Spies in England

Order to London Police.

That the search for German spies in England is being actively continued was shown again on Saturday by the number of charges before the magistrates in various parts of the country. Orders have been issued to the Metropolitan Police to proceed on and after today to enforce the provisions of the Aliens Restriction Order in Council against all German subjects who have not registered themselves according to the terms of the order.

At Old Street Police Court Wiliiam HAEK was charged with failing to register. The prisoner was arrested at the headquarters of the Royal Engineers Territorial Regiment, Victoria Park Square. He admitted that he was a German subject and had not registered himself, saying that he did not think the order applied to him as he had been 25 years in England. He was at the time in the uniform of a sergeant of the regiment and said he had been in a Volunteer corps in England for 20 years. A captain of the Engineers said that this was a fact and gave the prisoner a very good character. Mr. Chester Jones remanded the prisoner for a week.

At Belfast John ROCKMANN, stated to be a German subject, was committed for trial on a charge of having been found at Belfast Docks for the purpose of prejudicial to the State. The Crown Solicitor said he believed Rockmann was a Bachelor of Science at London University. Since January he had been employed in the drawing shop of Messers. Harland and Wolfe and before that he was in the submarine department of Messers. Vickers, Son and Maxim.

At Bridgwater Henry HANNACK, a German subject, was remanded on a charge of failing to register himself. The prisoner said he liked to regard himself as an Englishman. He hoped that England would be successful in the war and that the German Emperor would lose his throne.

A well dressed German, named Wilhelm STIEWE, a traveller, of Southampton. was sentenced by Matlock magistrates to three months hard labour for failing to register.

A correspondent informs us that the German pastor at Forest Hill, Herr Goehling, has been detained by the police."

Foreign Waiters Called home

This was an interesting little article from the Eastbourne Gazette in September 1914.

Those ‘affecting scenes’ at the Railway Station were Austrian men going to fight for the enemy, soon Eastbourne men would be sent abroad to fight these same ‘waiters’.

"Foreign Waiters Called home

In the height of the season about 500 foreign waiters are employed in various Eastbourne hotels, boarding houses, and apartment houses. The majority are Germans the minority consisting of, Austrians, Italians, Frenchmen, Dutchmen and Danes. Last week some of the Austrians were called home to serve in the Army, and they obeyed the call regardless loss and inconvenience involved. The Germans and Frenchmen liable for military service have left or will be called upon to leave.

There was some affecting scenes at Eastbourne Railway Station on Sunday morning when the train for Newhaven started. Some of the departing hotel employees were leaving behind wives or sweethearts who could not restrain their tears on parting from the men who were going forth to face so many unknown perils."

Attila the Hun and the Kaiser

Another great article that appeared in the Kildare Observer in September 1914.

"ATTILA THE KAISER'S MODEL

Those who imagine that the German Barbarities are the result of outbreaks of brutality on the part of the troops, and that they are not ordered by the highest authorities, would do well to remember that the Kaiser issued the following command to his troops on June 27th, 1900, an their departure for Pekin.

"When you come into contact with the enemy, strike him down. Quarter is not to be given. Prisoners are not to be made. Just, as a thousand years ago, the Huns, under their King Attila, made themselves a name which still appears imposing in tradition, so may the German name become known in China in such a way that never again will a Chinaman dare to look at a German.""