food-stuffs. Perhaps you think that so long as you have
money you will be able to buy food. That is not so. As long as there is
plenty of food, money is a convenience to buy it with, but no more.
Money is not value. If the food is not there, money will not make it,
and money becomes useless. Food gives money its value. We can do without
money; but we cannot do without food. People see the bakers' shops full
of bread, the butchers' shops full of meat, the grocers' shops full of
provisions, and they believe there is plenty of food. This is merely
food on the surface. The stock of food from which the shops draw the
food is low, seriously low, already. Unless we ration ourselves at once,
and carefully, there will come days when there may be no bread at all at
the baker's. There is a shortage of wheat all over the world, not only
in Europe, but also in North and South America. Millions of the men who
grew the wheat we eat are fighting, hundreds of thousands of them will
never go back to the fields they ploughed. If the present waste of bread
and wheat flour continues, there will be hardly enough to go round till
next harvest time. Great Britain only produces one-fifth of the bread it
eats. Four-fifths of the wheat comes from abroad. Hundreds of the ships
that brought it are now engaged in other work. They are carrying food
and munitions to France, Italy, and Russia. The ships that brought us
food are fewer by those hundreds.

"It is the women of the country who must see to this. By careful
rationing we can make our supplies hold out until after the harvest. Our
men are out at the front, fighting a grim battle, but, unless we do our
part of the business at home, they may fight a losing battle. It is for
us to see that our noble dead have not died in vain. With martyred
Belgium for an object lesson, it is the duty of every British girl to
make every possible sacrifice to keep those unspeakable Huns out of our
islands. I appeal to you all to use the utmost economy and abstinence,
and voluntarily to give up some of the things that you like. Remember
you will be helping to win the war. There is a rationing pledge on the
table near the door, and I ask every girl to sign it and to wear the
violet ribbon that will be given her. It is the badge of the new
temperance cause. The freedom of the world depends at the present time
on the food thrift and self-restraint of our civilians, no less than on
the courage of our soldiers. Please ta