Meatlyke & Peak Egg

Rationed Britain got good news about its food supply last week. Last month bushy-browed, eagle-beaked Minister of Food Frederick James Marquis, Baron Woolton, promised that rationing would be relaxed. Last week he explained his promise: U.S. food is pouring into Britain. U.S. Lend-Lease supplies now provide Britain with five or six per cent of her total foodstuffs, a full 25% of her animal proteins. Greater quantities are expected.

Besides rationing, wartime Britain has also been worried about its scandalous, booming black market in foodstuffs sold above the controlled prices. Already the Ministry of Food has prosecuted 30,000 cases, has got 27,000 convictions. One dealer was fined -L-300 ($1,200) for selling three-shilling-sixpence young chickens to London's smart Coq d'Or restaurant for four shillings. Coq d'Or was tagged -L-65 ($260) for buying at that price.

Last week, as sensational new black-market trials were said to be coming up, Britain chattered about the growing horde of "food-substitute" manufacturers, who sometimes clear as much as 1,600% profit. Items:

> One citrus-fruit substitute, sold for several shillings, consists of diluted citric acid worth a few pence.

> Cremaida, a milk substitute for ice cream, sells at two shillings a pound, is 96% wheat flour, 4% milk and sugar.

> Meatlyke ("savory sausage rolls") can be sold at a penny each for a gross profit of 68%.

> One "tea stretcher," advertised as giving 100 extra cups if added to a pound of tea, is 90% bicarbonate of soda.

> Of Peak Egg, an egg substitute, the London Daily Mirror's acidulous Columnist Cassandra wrote: "No hen ever laid egg or eyes on Peak Egg. . . . Take eight ounces of ordinary flour and two ounces of bicarbonate of soda, add a little dye and just a trace of gum. Mix well . . . relax and wait for the great unending public of British suckers."

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