Registration and/or Rationing of Meat in the New Year. Memorandum by the Ministry of Food.

1. The decision taken last October by the War Cabinet not to ration meat was to some extent based upon the statistical position as then known. From estimates of home supplies and from the estimated arrivals of known shipments of imported meat it was calculated that, after putting aside 50,000 tons of imported meat in the quarter towards building up a reserve, over and above a normal working stock of approximately 60,000 tons, for the three months 1st November, 1939, to 31st January, 1940, sufficient meat would be available for an average weekly supply of 27 ozs.