[The Luton Reporter: Tuesday, March 5th, 1918]

Yesterday there was an important conference at Bedford of Food Committee executive officers and wholesalers of the county concerning the Government's new margarine distribution scheme which is due to come into force next week.

Under this scheme the quota of margarine allotted to Luton weekly is 3 tons 14cwt 29lb (as against the 6½ tons required to give 4 ozs per head), and at a meeting of the Luton Food Committee on Thursday night very strong expressions of opinion were offered on this and other points of the scheme.

At Thursday night's meeting there were also complaints from the Co-operative Society and two local wholesale traders that they were getting no margarine in the current week, owing to the action of the Government in giving priority to wholesalers in the London and Home Counties area.

The Executive Officer stated that in reply to a telegram on the subject the margarine section of the Ministry of Food wrote that the distribution of margarine supplies to places outside London and the Home Counties' rationing scheme was not being interfered with, and there was no reason for supposing that local firms would not receive deliveries during the week from their usual source of supply, but Oakley Bros informed him that a telephone message had been received from their wholesalers stating that they were prohibited from supplying, except for distribution to places within London and the Home Counties' scheme. And Mr J. J. Wooding produced a postcard from another London wholesaler which stated that for the moment they were not allowed to send any bacon, hams or margarine outside that area, but if there was any over towards the end of the week they hoped to get permission of the Ministry of Food to deliver. It appeared, therefore, that the remainder of the country, especially that part in the neighbourhood of London, was to be bled to make the Government scheme a success.

With regard to the new margarine distribution scheme, which is to come into operation on March 11th, the Executive Officer explained that the essential features were that all margarine was to be taken over by the Ministry of Food and sold through a margarine clearing house for distribution. Food Committees would be primarily responsible for the allocation of the quantity of margarine received, and all the margarine allotted to a district would be consigned to it in bulk.

Retailers, caterers and institutions would be classified, and a distinction made between retailers who have sold over 2 cwt per week and those who have sold less than that quantity, but over 28 lbs. Those who sold less than 28 lbs would not ordinarily be recognised as registered retailers or margarine, and, from the figures supplied by the traders for the three months previous to their application for registration, it would appear that there were about 12 trades in the first class, 69 in the second, and 104 in no class at all.

It was elicited by Mr W. J. Mabley that the small shopkeeper would be absolutely ruled out by the scheme, and he remarked that while he did not agree with the system at present existing it seemed to him the small shopkeeper had as much right to expect a living under it as the big wholesaler. This was simply crushing the small man out of business and assisting the big wholesalers to create a monopoly.

The Executive Officer pointed out the the Director of Meat Supplies announced some time ago that that was going to be the inevitable result of the meat distribution scheme, and the Chairman (Alderman J. H. Staddon) said it would be the same with all foodstuffs.

Mr Mabley added that it did not end there, because if the small shopkeepers could not get margarine they would not be able to get rid of the other goods that had to sale, as people would go to the big retailer for their butter and margarine, and also get their other goods at the same place. The small corner shopkeeper would be absolutely crushed out, and it seemed most unfair.

Councillor A. B. Attwood said it had been his argument the whole time that the whole of the orders issued by the Food Controller meant the creation of monopolies. If they were going to shut out the small shopkeepers they were going to re-create queues instead of doing away with them.

One point on which information was asked for was as to whether the ration was to be made up of butter, it being pointed out that a number of small retailers who sold practically no margarine before the war sold a tidy quantity of butter.

The Executive Officer replied that there were dozens of other difficulties which had got to be settled before the scheme came into operation. All those points would not be satisfactorily settled before March 11th, and his fear was that the margarine would not be there. It was absurd to plant a scheme on a committee or anybody else at such short notice, but they met the same thing every time.

The Chairman was asked to attend the conference at Bedford with the Executive Officer and Messrs A. B. Attwood, W. J. Primett and T. H. Kingston appointed a sub-committee to make the necessary inquiries into traders' figures with a view to determining who were entitled to be registered under the scheme, and empowered to appoint a temporary distribution officer. Such an officer is necessary under the scheme, and the opinion was expressed that it must be someone familiar with the trade.

With regard to the compulsory rationing scheme for butter, margarine and meat which is to some into operation on March 25th, the Executive Officer reported that as yet he had not received any of the forms, other than in summary of the meat rationing scheme, and two samples of meat tickets. If the meat tickets and butter and margarine tickets had to be issued separately, it was going to increase the expense very considerably.

The scheme was fixed to run for 16 weeks, at the end of which time it was anticipated it would be necessary to have a general rationing scheme, and the Executive Officer commented that if other articles were to be rationed on the same lines as margarine and meat we should not get much to eat.

"I don't know how a man is going to work,"said Councillor Attwood. "I should not like to employ a labourer if he had no more food than that."