BELFAST RB BOOKLET 2020 - Flipbook - Page 55
Ci t y of Belf ast Grand Bl ack Chapt er - Dem onst rat i on Bookl et 2020
SO
NEXT TIME YOU HAPPEN TO LISTEN TO ANY C OUNTRY AND W ESTERN RECORDINGS ,
ESPECIALLY THOSE BY ARTISTS FROM THE DEEP SOUTHERN S TATES OF A MERICA , PAY SOME
ADDED ATTENTION TO THE LYRICS AND NOT JUST THE BACKGROUND MUSIC ; YOU MIGHT BE
QUITE TAKEN ABACK , AND INDEED , PLEASANTLY SURPRISED , AT WHAT YOU MIGHT HEAR .
THOSE GOOD OLD DAYS ??
Despite having come through the horrors of another World War, and the fascism
of Hitler's Nazi Party, Britain was far from effluent either in wealth, kind or basic
cuisine. Having endured two large conflicts within twenty years of each other,
the immense cost in lives and finance had certainly taken its toll. The land fit for
heroes from WWI was not the promised reward given in 1918, nor was it seen to
be any better in 1945. The United Kingdom still needed to get back to the future
and the former envy of the world status, with its Great British Empire of old.
Throughout history, war has meant scarcity
of food, whether because of the destruction of
arable land, the sinking of
supply ships, or the hoarding
of available supplies by the
rich.
As fighting men started
streaming out of Britain
during the autumn of 1939,
after the UK had declared
war against Germany, the
British Government soon
realised it had a problem.
At that time, fifty-five million
tonnes of food were imported
annually from other countries
across the globe, including
eighty per cent of the nation’s fruit, cheese and
sugar; ninety per cent of all cereals and fats,
as well as half of all the meat consumed
throughout the country.
Soldiers weren’t paid very much back
then and food prices were set to rocket as
fears of possible shortages grew; in fact by
February, 1940 they had risen by an
average of fourteen per cent.
To prevent the British people from going
hungry, the Government administration had to
do something radical and harsh.
T H E A N S W E R W A S … RATI ONI NG
With the onset of another war within two
decades of a previous one, and the intake
of lessons from the WWI conflict, a
National Register of citizens had already
been compiled by the end of
September in 1939. The plan
being that ration books
would be distributed to each
person during the following
month, along with strict
instructions that everyone
must be registered by the
end of November, along with
any of the shops they
intended to patronise.
However the Daily Express
soon after began to publish a
vigorous newspaper antirationing campaign in anticipation of such
government measures.
Although this proved the opposite and a
boon to the government; as it had already
accustomed the public to the idea of much
needed austerity measures.
Indeed a public survey held in November
that year revealed that of those polled, over
half of them considered rationing to be an
ultimate necessity and fair system.
The groundwork had by now been well
and truly laid so that on 8th January 1940,
the Government introduced rationing with
a sheer certainty that it would be welcomed
or accepted as a fundamental exigency for
the future betterment of the Country.
IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN - 53 - AND THE FUTURE OF THE LIVING