100 Years Ago

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/our-aims-and-their-price-gfcnpb5rd

december 21, 1917

Our aims and their price

The most important feature in the Prime Minister’s broad survey yesterday was his treatment of the fundamental question of “war aims”. The aims he put before the nation have been the aims of all responsible statesmen from the day when German treachery and violence towards defenceless Belgium drove the nation into war. They are, as ever, restitution, reparation, and guarantees. But the main demand involves, as it always has done, the complete overthrow of Prussian “militarism”. The Prime Minister does not attempt to disguise our disappointment at the results of the year’s campaign. Our troops have done wonderful things on the Western front, even though their most striking victory was afterwards impaired by a serious counter-stroke. But the initial defeat of the Italians, and the fact that Russia is now actually negotiating a peace, have made the situation “undoubtedly more menacing”. There are brilliant compensations in the East, of which Mr Lloyd George made the most, but they hardly diminish the gravity of the immediate position. The next few months, in short, are likely to be the worst of the war. We must all make up our minds to fresh sacrifices, and, first of all, to fresh sacrifices of manpower. The defection of Russia and the demands of the Italian campaign impose a fresh drain upon our Armies. Are we going to meet it? The answer rests very largely with the trade unions. Mr Lloyd George took to himself the fullest share of responsibility for the pledges given to them early in the war. But they were not, and could not be, absolute pledges. Conditions might arise in which every man must come out to defend it.

The need of men is imperious. Russia has gone out of the war and America is not yet well in it. We hold the gap. We have been sending back men to hold it who have been seriously wounded two or three times over. That is a deplorable necessity, in flagrant contradiction to the whole theory of “equal sacrifice”. But it must continue and extend, unless Labour is ready to give its fellows in the lines the support essential to their safety and to ours. The Government have resolved, wisely as we consider, to take the trade unions into their confidence before they ask the House of Commons for fresh powers.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/past-six-days/2017-12-20/register/food-queues-in-the-fog-s0spgsccz

december 20, 1917

Food queues in the fog

A brown fog and intense cold did not prevent the tea and margarine queues from assembling outside the shops yesterday. Some of the waiting lines were formed before dawn, and included hundreds of people. In some of the suburbs yesterday no tea, margarine, or butter could be obtained, and there is no doubt that this suburban scarcity was reflected in the City. The resident population of the City is small, and its wants could be supplied many times over by the shops in the area. The people in the queues, however, had come from all over London. Some were poor folk, but others were of the lower middle classes. Children were not so numerous as on earlier days, though a few mothers had again brought their little ones to help.

When Birmingham begins to ration its people in January the scale will be 1oz of tea per person per week and 4oz of butter or margarine per week. The fat ration is well below the 10oz laid down in the scale of voluntary rationing, and shows how serious the scarcity has become.
We understand that arrangements are almost complete for the control of the supplies of margarine. Some control seems to be inevitable if the distribution is to be equitable, and if it can be coupled with local rationing a long step will have been taken towards abolishing the queues. The value of local effort is being realized by a number of the Food Control Committees, but others, owing either to apathy or excessive caution, are inclined to wait on events. The Leeds committee, for instance, take the view that any scheme of control ought to be national and not local. Pontypool seems to be the first place actually to get a rationing scheme into operation. A card system was put into force there on Monday in respect of tea, butter, margarine, cheese, and lard. Generally the local committees who are taking action are extending the sugar-card system. The Preston committee, however, are considering a plan under which tradesmen issue tickets entitling the holders to make purchases at specified hours of the day.
In central London there is a complete famine of all spirits. No whisky, brandy, gin, nor rum could be bought yesterday, and port wine was difficult to obtain. For claret, burgundy, chablis, and other light wines the merchants were asking double the prices charged a year ago.