The statistics made for troubling reading. Almost 90 per cent of the wheat Britain used in its bread was sourced from overseas – chiefly from the USA, Canada and Australia. Sugar was mainly derived from imported sugar cane; more than half of all meat was shipped from Australia, New Zealand and Argentina; and around 90 per cent of the nation’s butter was produced abroad. All in all, more than 70 per cent of Britain’s food was imported – and that was a far higher proportion than any other nation about to be embroiled in the conflict.
In peacetime, this fact gave little cause for concern. Britain’s global maritime supply chains saw to that. But in wartime, with German U-boats stalking the seas and threatening to sever shipping lanes linking Britain to its allies, the nation’s reliance on imported foodstuffs was potentially catastrophic. In short, as war loomed, Britain was confronted with the prospect that it could be starved into submission.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2022-Ausgabe von BBC History Magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2022-Ausgabe von BBC History Magazine.
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