"......during the starvation-year of 1917 and the great U-Boat campaign."

[Felix C]

Full quote "(conceived and carried during the starvation-year of 1917 and the great U-Boat campaign) round about the Battle of Cambrai, when the end of the war seemed as far off as it does now". From a letter J.J. Tolkien wrote about their first son. 

Was there extensive rationing and/or malnutrition in the UK during the period mentioned in 1917? 

[michaeldr]

10 hours ago, Felix C said:

Was there extensive rationing and/or malnutrition in the UK during the period mentioned in 1917? 

Rationing was introduced in Britain in 1918, but it came about as a result of the worsening food shortages during the years 1916-1917, and the unrestricted U-boat campaign was certainly a major factor in those growing shortages.

quote: By August 1917, 1,500,000 tons of British merchant shipping had been sunk. At one stage only four days supply of sugar remained and a few weeks worth of wheat flour. The shortage of many forms of food led to long queues at the shops and rapidly rising prices. [from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zr64jxs/revision/4]

[michaeldr]

Regarding shipping and the effects of the U-boat campaign

quote: The intensification of submarine activity during the autumn and winter of 1916 brought about a complete change. By 31st January 1917 the total available ocean-going tonnage was less by 925,000 tons than at the outbreak of war. Then came the ‘ unrestricted ’ submarine campaign, and by 30th April the net deficit had risen to 1,650,000 tons ; by 31st July to 2,300,000, and by 28th February 1918 to 3,000,000 tons.

[From https://archive.org/details/economicsocialhi04carn_0/page/278/mode/2up]

[helpjpl]

1.  In 1917 the government encouraged British civilians to 'adopt the voluntary ration' by eating less:

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/home-front-stories/fighting-through-food/

2.  The allowance under this scheme was based on three staples of the daily diet - bread, meat, and sugar. The weekly allowance was for:

Bread including cakes, puddings etc - 4lbs (1.8 kg)

Meat including bacon, ham, sausages, game, rabbits, poultry, and tinned meat - 2½ lbs (1.1 kg)

Sugar ¾ lb (340 grams)

https://www.mylearning.org/stories/ww1-food-shortages-and-rationing/710?

JP

Edited 19 August , 2022 by helpjpl

[Acknown]

Added to the U-boat menace, there was a disastrous harvest in 1916 due to appalling weather. Britain was reduced to wheat reserves of only six weeks; an impending disaster. The Government acted and over two million acres of land were turned over to agriculture, nine million acres were planted with grain and potatoes, and tens of thousands of farm-worker soldiers were sent back to work at home. By 1918, 250,000 women were working in agriculture and over 30,000 prisoners were employed on farms.

Source: Farmers Weekly at: https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/first-world-war-armistice-100th-anniversary-farmings-role and various.

Acknown

[Felix C]

Thanks everyone. Have heard regarding the great Australian grain disaster and how food supplies in the UK were projected to be scarce when USW was at its height in April, May 1917. Never heard the expression Starvation related to this year or 1918 on the UK side. In Germany yes. 

[Acknown]

I don't think people in the UK starved, but the expression may have been an exaggerated way of describing the severe rationing that was enforced that year: ration cards; half a pound of sugar per week; butter and margarine scarce; little or no meat; and communal kitchens. Rationing was intended to make things fair for all, but in those far off times, as Lyn MacDonald states in 'To The Last Man - Spring 1918' (1998), 'It was painfully obvious that the long queues outside food shops were confined to the poorer areas'. Had measures not been taken, matters would have got considerably worse. 

Acknown

[ilkley remembers]

I would suggest that the implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare was only a part of the reason for the increasing shortages of food noted especially in 1917. Given that even before 1914 Britain’s food supply overly relied on imported produce it seems odd that successive Governments had failed to make long term strategic plans to secure adequate supplies in the event of war.

 

During the war ideological adherence to outdated Laissez Faire non-interventionism meant that food supply and pricing was left to the mercy of a capitalist system in which the cost of many basic foodstuffs almost doubled in three years. This was coupled with a wholly unrealistic understanding of the diet and lifestyle of the majority working class population meant that what limited governmental intervention that did occur was poorly targeted. The result was significant food shortages, widespread queuing and for many, particularly the more vulnerable, near starvation.

 

It was only in late 1917 and early 1918 that the Government was largely forced, somewhat reluctantly, to institute some form of rationing legislation. The change came about because of significant threats by Trade Unions of industrial strife and a belated realization that voluntary measures favoured the better off and was stoking significant resentment amongst working class families who already believed that they were shouldering an unfair proportion of the wars burden.

 

Of particular concern was the attitude of servicemen to this growing disquiet on the home front. The authorities were particularly sensitive to anything that might have a deleterious effect on the morale of frontline troops who it was noted at the time were getting an increasingly pessimistic view from home.

 

In the end the Government was able to ‘spin’ the introduction of rationing as a result of unrestricted submarine warfare but the truth is, I think, rather more complex and nuanced.

 

[michaeldr]

Ilkley,

I would guess that your para 3 above relating the government's apprehension at the possibility of trades union action to help the starving poor, would also be influenced by happenings in Russia at that very same time 

[ilkley remembers]

On the face of it, Michael, it is probably a reasonable position to take given the widespread fear that the events in Russia had on many people in this country. Certainly, for the Russian Army and later the German Army, events at home had dire consequences leading to their ultimate disintegration.

 

The Trade Unions seem to have maintained an interesting position during the war and assumed a generally compliant attitude towards restrictions and held a largely mainstream patriotic view of the conflict. Certainly the progressive elements of the Liberal Party had affiliations with some unions and presented itself as the workers party willing to listen to justified complaints.

 

I think that what tipped the balance between unions and Government was the issue of food as the latter tried to restrict supplies of cereals and sugar in particular which were the real staples of  the working class diet. Accusations of out of touch elites unable to comprehend the needs of the poor had great resonance with a population already accepting that the middle and upper classes had benefited more from the war. Good old ‘Class War’ stuff really. Several strikes/ demonstrations about food supplies in early 1918 in Manchester, London and elsewhere really drove the point home.  

 

I think that the Government began to panic and started checking what effect this was having on the morale of the army, even opening the ‘green’ uncensored letters. But they couldn’t do much about soldiers returning from leave bring tales of food shortages and queues.  I suppose for the average Tommy having fought through the horrors of Passchendaele  the idea that loved ones were enduring the rigours of a cold winter queuing for a loaf of bread was a bit difficult to stomach.

[michaeldr]

Ilkley - Many thanks for your thoughts on this

Michael

[Felix C]

Always learn a great deal here beyond the question posed.