potato crop we have had.

In restaurants and hotels now supplies are regulated. No one can have
more than two ounces of bread at any meal, and the amount of flour and
sugar supplied is strictly rationed to the hotels, according to the
number served. Not more than five ounces of meat (before cooking) can
be served at any meal. These regulations are strictly enforced, and
the duty of seeing all the regulations are carried out, and all the
work done, devolves upon the Local Food Control Committees which have
been set up all over the country under the Ministry, by the local
authorities. On every such Committee there must be women. They fix
prices for milk, etc., and initiate prosecutions for infringements of
the laws regulating food.

No white flour is sold or used in Britain. The mills are all
controlled by the Government and all flour is now war grade, which
means it is made of about 70 per cent white flour and other grains,
rye, corn (which we call maize), barley, rice-flour, etc., are added.
We expect to mill potato flour this year. Oatmeal has a fixed price,
9 cents a pound, in Scotland, 10 cents in England. No fancy pastries,
no icing on cakes and no fancy bread may be made. Only two shapes of
loaf are allowed--the tin loaf and the Coburg. Cakes must only have 15
per cent sugar and 30 per cent war grade flour. Buns and scones and
biscuits have regulations as to making, also.

Butter is very scarce and margarine supplies not always big enough,
and we have tea and sugar and margerine queues in our big towns--women
standing in long rows waiting. It is an intolerable waste of time--and
yet it seems difficult to get it managed otherwise.