Naturally, a large can of corn—or anything else for that matter—will be worth more in points than a small one. In establishing the point values of varying amounts of the same food the net weight of the contents of the can will be the deciding factor.
Q: What sort of foods will be point rationed?
A: Processed foods: canned and glassed fruits, vegetables, soups and juices; dried fruits; frozen fruits and vegetables; chili sauce and catsup. Processed baby foods—strained or chopped preparations made of fruits, vegetables or meats—also will be included.
Q: When will the point rationing of processed foods go into effect?
A: On March 1. This week retail sales of these foods will be suspended to permit wholesalers and storekeepers to prepare for the program and to allow civilians to apply for War Ration Book No. 2.
Q: What is War Ration Book No. 2?
A: This is the book containing the stamps that will be necessary in procuring processed foods. Later it will be used in meat rationing.
Q: Would you indicate how War Ration Book No. 2 is to be used by describing its contents?
A: You will find that Book 2 contains blue and red stamps. The blue stamps are to be used in purchasing processed foods; the red stamps are to be reserved for meat rationing, which is expected to start April 1. In addition, each stamp is lettered and numbered. The letters tell you when the stamps may be used—only A B and C stamps may be used during March, the first ration period—and the figures tell you the point value of each stamp.
Q: How will I know the point value of a rationed food?
A: Toward the end of this week the government will issue an official table of point values, which your grocer must post where you can see it. This will tell you exactly how many points each rationed food is worth. Modifications, probably not oftener than once monthly, may be made in the table, which will be the same throughout the country.
Q: Does it make a difference how I spend my stamps?
A: Yes, to a certain extent it does. Using the high-point stamps first means that you won’t be left at the end of a month with anything but an eight-point stamp to exchange for a six-point purchase. You should avoid such a situation, because your grocer isn’t permitted to make “change” in stamps. If what you buy is lower in point value than the stamp you present, you’ll lose some of your points.
A gas rationing booklet from the 1940s.
Q: How can I best budget my points?
A: One way to do it is to figure out your family’s approximate weekly point allowance. Each person is allowed forty-eight points a rationing period, which means that, if your family consists of two, you have approximately twenty-four points a week to spend. Then list the point-rationed foods and the quantities you expect to buy for the week, jotting down the point value beside each item. Add up the points and compare the sum with your family’s point allowance for the week.
If your total is less than the weekly budget, then, obviously, no changes are necessary. If it is more, you will have to modify your list. This can be done by substituting low-point foods for those that have a high-point value, and by shifting to fresh fruits and vegetables in some instances.
Q: What happens when my son, who is in the Army, and has no ration book, comes home on furlough?
A: If your son is on furlough for seven days or longer he presents his leave papers to the local rationing board, which will issue a point certificate, allowing enough points to cover his leave period. Your grocer will accept this point certificate instead of point stamps.
Food ration stamps must be torn out of the book in the presence of your grocer or in the presence of the delivery boy.
FEBRUARY 22, 1943
ANOTHER SETBACK FOR THE ALLIES IN MID-TUNISIA
GERMANS ADVANCE
Tanks and Infantry, with Artillery, Break U.S. And British Lines
By DREW MIDDLETON
Wireless to The New York Times.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, Feb. 21—German tanks and two battalions of infantry cracked the stubborn Allied defense yesterday and occupied the highly important Kasserine Pass, twelve miles from the nearest point on the Algerian frontier, as the second phase of the German offensive in Central Tunisia got under way.
Veteran British armored units that had rushed south during the past week joined an American combat command in heavy fighting that continued through yesterday and early today. American and British tanks lunged forward together, leading their infantry comrades in counter-attacks against the steel fingers of Field Marshal General Erwin Rommel’s army reaching for Tebessa, Algeria, the junction of four main roads and two railroads.
Defying heavy clouds that hung over the battlefront, Airacobras of the Twelfth United States Army Air Force harried enemy supply columns winding toward the front. A number of trucks were damaged by cannon and machine-gun fire in attacks that followed a night raid by Royal Air Force Bisleys against targets on these roads and others farther south in the Gafsa area. German communications were also attacked by these medium British bombers Friday night, but bad weather prevented accurate observation of the results.
Besides the successful attacks on the Kasserine Gap, the enemy made one other offensive movement. For the second time in two days a strong armored reconnaissance force probed the British positions near Sbiba. Again they were met by the ubiquitous guards; who knocked out two tanks and severely damaged two more. [The French also claimed a role in this action.]
Enemy losses in the fighting at Kasserine are believed to equal the heavy ones suffered in the first attack Thursday. The second push, however, was preceded by much heavier fire from heavy and medium artillery, which reportedly silenced American guns in the gap and on the hills to each side.
Dive-bombers, which played a major part in the break-through at Faid just one week ago, did not have an important role in this attack. The gap was won mainly by guns, tanks and infantry after hours of severe fighting in which the Americans and British counterattacked with reckless abandon.
The entire Allied position in Western Central Tunisia is affected by the smash through the gap northwest of Kasserine, which showed again that the enemy was willing to commit large forces for taking geographical positions essential in that country. Should Marshal Rommel swing west on Tebessa, the communications of all American and British forces in that area would be seriously threatened. If he turns northward against the rear areas of the British First Army, a further adjustment of the Allied line will be necessary to meet this attack on the open flank.
Another Setback for the Allies in Mid-Tunisia: Marshal Rommel’s infantry and tanks captured the pass northwest of Kasserine (1). He may now turn to the right and make for Thala or turn to the left, force his way through the pass at Djebel Hanira, break into the comparatively flat country beyond Tebessa and strike for Constantine (shown on the inset). East of Sbiba (2) a new German thrust was smashed back. The British Eighth Army drove eight miles beyond Medenine (3) on the road to Mareth and the railhead at Gabes.
But all the indications are that Marshal Rommel intends to pursue his attacks against the American and British troops in the Tebessa region. It must be noted that the movements of the last few days have left the German forces open to a counter-attack from the north. Whether General Sir Harold R.L.G. Alexander, commanding the Allied land forces, can risk committing the First Army’s reserves to such an action while Col. Gen. Dietloff von Arnim waits at the head of the Medjerda Valley in Northern Tunisia is a difficult problem for the Allied commander.
The bulk of the best German troops is being used in the present offensive, the future of which will be dictated by the German losses in tanks. If the enemy can recover enough Allied tanks to replace his own losses and give him reasonable security for the coming battle with General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s British Eighth Army, the battle of Kasserine Pass is only the first step in a serious and very threatening offensive.
MARCH 2, 1943
SAVE DOOMED JEWS, HUGE RALLY PLEADS
Immediate action by the United Nations to save as many as possible of the five million Jews threatened with extermination by Adolf Hitler and to halt the liquidation of European Jews by the Nazis was demanded at a mass demonstration of Christians and Jews in Madison Square Garden last night.
The demand by religious, civic, political and labor leaders was heard by an audience of 21,000 that filled the huge auditorium, while several thousand others were unable to get in.
By 8 o’clock, shortly before the meeting opened, the approaches to the Garden were closed by the police, but 10,000 persons remained standing in Forty-ninth Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and heard the addresses through amplifiers after many thousands of others who were unable to get in had dispersed. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish Congress, who presided, announced from the platform, on the basis of police estimates, that 75,000 persons had tried to make their way into the Garden in the three hours before the meeting opened.
Joining in support of the demonstration from overseas in messages read at the meeting were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, who is gravely ill in London, and Chief Rabbi J. H. Hertz of Great Britain. Sir William Beveridge, author of the Beveridge plan for social security, addressed the meeting by radio from the British capital.
The “Stop Hitler Now” demonstration was under the joint auspices of the American Jewish Congress, the Church Peace Union, the Free World Association, American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations and other Christian and Jewish bodies.
A resolution offered by Louis Lipsky, chairman of the governing council of the American Jewish Congress, and adopted unanimously, proposed an eleven-point program of action to achieve the purposes of the demonstration.
The resolution will be submitted to President Roosevelt and through him to the United Nations.
LA GUARDIA SPEAKS FOR CITY
Mayor La Guardia spoke in the name of the people of New York. Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, spoke in behalf of the entire Jewish community.
Governor Dewey addressed the meeting by radio from Albany. From Washington came radio addresses by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and Senator Robert F. Wagner. A message was read from Wendell L. Willkie, who declared that “practical measures must be formulated and carried out immediately to save as many Jews as possible.”
The keynote of the meeting was struck by Herman Shulman, chairman of the special committee of the American Jewish Congress on the European situation, who in introducing Dr. Wise as presiding officer of the meeting called attention to the fact that “months have passed since the United Nations issued their declaration denouncing the unspeakable atrocities of the Nazis against the Jews and threatening retribution,” with the promise that “immediate practical steps would be taken to implement it,” but that nothing had been done as yet.
PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD
The climax of the meeting was reached after Cantor Morris Kapok-Kagan had sung “El Mole Rachmim,” Hebrew prayer for the dead, memorializing the Jewish victims of the Nazis. This was preceded by the blowing of the shofar, the ram’s horn, by Rabbi Maurice Taub, and as the sounds subsided and Mr. Kapok-Kagan began the prayer the huge audience wailed and wept, while the thousands outside, who heard the proceedings through amplifiers, joined. There followed the reading of the Kaddish, another prayer for the dead, by Rabbi Israel Goldstein, and the reading of a passage from the Psalms by Rabbi Jacob Hoffman, ending with the words, “Save, Lord: Let the King hear us when we call.”
PLEA BY CHIEF RABBI
The message from Chief Rabbi Hertz read:
“It is appalling to think that Whole of mid-European Jewry stands on brink of annihilation and that millions of Jewish men, women and children have already been slaughtered with fiendish cruelties which baffle belief, but equally appalling is fact that those who proclaim the Four Freedoms have so far done very little to secure even the freedom to live for 6,000,000 of their Jewish fellow men by readiness to rescue those who might still escape Nazi torture and butchery. May God grant that your great demonstration of American Jewry be the means of overcoming the strange and calamitous inertia of those who alone can initiate the sacred work of human salvage.”
Dr. Weizmann called upon the United Nations to implement their expressions of sympathy for the Jews by deeds.
“Two million Jews have already been exterminated,” he said. “The world can no longer plead that the ghastly facts are unknown and unconfirmed. At this moment expressions of sympathy, without accompanying attempts to launch acts of rescue, become a hollow mockery in the ears of the dying.
“The democracies have a clear duty before them. Let them negotiate with Germany through the neutral countries concerning the possible release of the Jews in the occupied countries. Let havens be designated in the vast territories of the United Nations which will give sanctuary to those fleeing from imminent murder. Let the gates of Palestine be opened to all who can reach the shores of the Jewish homeland. The Jewish community of Palestine will welcome with joy and thanksgiving all delivered from Nazi hands.”
MARCH 3, 1943
GANDHI FAST ENDS; AIM NOT ACHIEVED
He Failed to Win Release or to Get Much Notice, Except When Near Death
By HERBERT L. MATTHEWS
Wireless to The New York Times.
POONA, India, March 3—Mohandas K. Gandhi’s twenty-one-day fast ended in defeat and failure at 9 o’clock this morning [11:30 last night in New York].
His life has been saved against all belief, but politically it has been a blow, to his reputation and to the Congress movement. He pledged a fight to the finish against the British last August; now he has lost the second round.
The government forbade any demonstration in connection with the breaking of the fast, only Devadas and Ramdas Gandhi, sons, and a few fellow-prisoners were present. This is the first time Mr. Gandhi has failed to achieve his object by fasting. This has disappointed and discouraged him. Therefore, he is hardly likely to let things rest as they are.
His first task is to regain some of the strength he has lost by his astonishing ordeal. Anxiety for his health will continue for weeks.
To what extent his faith and that of the Hindu community is shaken by this defeat cannot be ascertained yet. The Hindus still assert that they had tremendous popular backing in their pleas for Mr. Gandhi’s release and that there will be an aftermath of bitterness that will make reconciliation more difficult than ever.
The British, on the other hand, are pleased at what they consider to have been a brilliant stroke of judgment by the Viceroy, the Marquess of Linlithgow, who for the second time in less than a year has demonstrated that the Congress party is not nearly as strong as it claims to be.
There was little mass expression of sympathy, concern or even interest, except when Mr. Gandhi appeared to be dying. The bulk of the Moslems and all the princely States remained on the side-lines. Even the Hindu Mahasabha, the most important Hindu political organization other than the Congress party, deplored the fast.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, head of the Moslem League, again profits by Congress blunders. Although he has carefully refrained from rubbing it in during Mr. Gandhi’s fast, he must be delighted at the turn events have taken.
World reaction to his fast has also disappointed the Hindus. Neither they nor Mr. Gandhi seems to have taken into consideration that the rest of the world is absorbed in the war. In general the consensus here is that Mr. Gandhi has made the greatest mistake of his career and primarily because he overlooked the war factor. That made the British willing to face the risk of his death with all its consequences. One result of this failure is that it should be his last attempt to gain anything from the British by fasting.
In any event it is the war that will determine the government’s reaction to any Congress move, just as it has to Mr. Gandhi’s fast. India is going to be a base for one of the main attacks against the J
apanese one of these days when the reconquest of Burma takes place. Meanwhile the British feel that India must be kept peaceful and under control.
MARCH 28, 1943
AMERICANS OPEN NEW TUNISIAN DRIVE AS BRITISH CONTINUE MARETH GAINS; FONDOUK IS GOAL; U.S. TROOPS THRUST ON
By The Associated Press
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, March 27—American troops launched a surprise offensive toward Fondouk in Central Tunisia today and met with initial success as the British Eighth Army, doggedly fighting its way into the Mareth Line fortifications, was reported to be “proceeding according to plan in spite of stiff resistance by the enemy.
[The Axis-fed Paris radio said yesterday that a strong British push against the southeast flank of the Mareth Line had forced Axis troops to “withdraw from their forward positions,” The United Press reported.
[Berlin, broadcasting a D.N.B. dispatch, said that British and American troops appeared to be preparing to launch offensives in both Northern and Central Tunisia and that detachments of crack British troops had recently reached the Medjez-el-Bab area from England, British and American movements were described as “considerably stronger” in both sectors and the Allies were reported to be bringing up heavy concentrations of artillery.]
The American push on Fondouk, which is fifteen miles southwest of an important Axis air base at Kai-rouan, was reported to be making “good headway.” The drive began after a German infantry attack had been repulsed east of Maknassy, more than 100 miles south of the scene of the new fighting.
On the Maknassy–El Guettar front, where Lieut. Gen. George S. Patton Jr.’s main concentrations of men and armor are probing for a passage through the rugged hills to the Mediterranean, there was only local activity yesterday as rainstorms swept across Tunisia.
The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945 Page 87