ins are being taken to
mislead the outside world. The foreign correspondents are not
allowed to send anything the Government does not wish to get out.
They are, moreover, regularly dosed with propaganda distributed by
the _Nachrichtendienst_ (Publicity Service of the Foreign Office).

One of the books handed round to the neutrals when I was in Berlin
was a treatise on the German industrial and economic situation by
Professor Cassell, of the University of Upsala, Sweden.

He came upon the invitation of the German authorities for a three
weeks' study of conditions. In his preface he artlessly mentions
that he was enabled to accomplish so much in three weeks owing to
the praiseworthy way in which everything was arranged for him. He
compiled his work from information discreetly imparted at
interviews with officials, from printed statistics, and from
observations made on carefully shepherded expeditions. Neutral
correspondents are expected to use this sort of thing, which is
turned out by the hundredweight, as the basis of their
communications to their newspapers. We were supplied with a
similar volume on the "Great German naval victory of Jutland."

One feels in Germany that the great drama of the war is the drama
of the food supply--the struggle of a whole nation to prevent
itself being exhausted through hunger and shortage of raw materials.

After six months of war the bread ticket was introduced, which
guaranteed thirty-eight ordinary sized rolls or equivalent each
week to everybody throughout the Empire. In the autumn of 1915
Tuesday and Friday became meatless days. The butter lines had
become an institution towards the close of the year. There was
little discomfort, however.

For seventeen months Germany laughed at the attempt to starve her
out. Then, early in 1916 came a change. An economic decline was
noticeable, a decline which was rapid and continuous during each
succeeding month. Pork disappeared from the menu, beef became
scarcer and scarcer, but veal was plentiful until April. In March,
sugar could be obtained in only small quantities, six months later
the unnutritious saccharine had almost completely replaced it.
Fish continued in abundance, but became increasingly expensive. A
shortage in meat caused a run on eggs. In September egg cards
limited each person to two eggs per week, in December the maximum
became one egg in two weeks. Vegetables, particularly cabbage and
turnips, were plenti