The Politics of Starvation

"The Politics of Starvation" is an essay published in 1946 by the English author George Orwell. The essay argues the need to help feed Europeans after the war, and attributes motives to left-wingers who oppose the idea.

## Background

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Rationing in the United Kingdom was introduced at an early stage of World War II, and did not end completely until 1954. It became stricter after the war ended than during the hostilities, with bread rationing beginning in 1946 and potato rationing in 1947. This was largely because of the need to feed the population of European areas coming under British control, whose economies had been devastated by the fighting.

Save Europe Now was an organisation under the aegis of Orwell's publisher Victor Gollancz which was concerned with the relief and reconstruction of Europe after the war.[1]

The essay first appeared in Tribune on 18 January 1946.

## Summary

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Orwell has received a wad of literature from the "Save Europe Now Committee" arguing that whereas we are reasonably well off, a good part of Europe is lapsing into brute starvation. He contrasts this with a letter in The Guardian by Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert which states that on his return to Britain he found the children looking pallid and suety compared with the rosy-cheeked youngsters of Denmark and criticises those who would cut present British rations to give more to the Germans.

Orwell quotes extensively from the "Save Europe Now" material on the shortages of food and medicines in places like Austria and Czechoslovakia and Budapest and the breakdown of law and order among children, and reports that the voluntary scheme proposed was discouraged officially. Orwell gives two reasons for the Left being against the scheme. Firstly the working classes would resent it, and secondly food is a political weapon and Russophiles consider that sending food to Eastern Europe is an attempt to undermine the prestige of the Soviet Union. In conclusion Orwell argues that letting Germans go hungry would have the same effect as the punitive reparations after the First World War.

## See also

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* Bibliography of George Orwell

## References

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1. ^ Matthew Frank The New Morality—Victor Gollancz, ‘Save Europe Now’and the German Refugee Crisis, 1945–46 Oxford Journals

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George Orwell

Bibliography

Novels|

| Fiction|

* Burmese Days (1934)
* A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
* Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
* Coming Up for Air (1939)
* Animal Farm (1945)
* Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

|

Nonfiction|

* Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
* The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
* Homage to Catalonia (1938)

Essays|

| 1930s|

* "A Hanging" (1931)
* "The Spike" (1931)
* "Bookshop Memories" (1936)
* "Shooting an Elephant" (1936)
* "Spilling the Spanish Beans" (1937)

|

1940s|

* "Boys' Weeklies" (1940)
* "Inside the Whale" (1940)
* "My Country Right or Left" (1940)
* "The Art of Donald McGill" (1941)
* "England Your England" (1941)
* "The Lion and the Unicorn" (1941)
* "Poetry and the Microphone" (1943)
* "Raffles and Miss Blandish" (1944)
* "Good Bad Books" (1945)
* "Notes on Nationalism" (1945)
* "The Sporting Spirit" (1945)
* "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool" (1947)
* "The English People" (1947)
* "Toward European Unity" (1947)
* "Reflections on Gandhi" (1949)

| 1946|

* "Books v. Cigarettes" (1946)
* "Confessions of a Book Reviewer" (1946)
* "Decline of the English Murder" (1946)
* "A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray" (1946)
* "How the Poor Die" (1946)
* "The Moon Under Water" (1946)
* "A Nice Cup of Tea" (1946)
* "Pleasure Spots" (1946)
* "Politics and the English Language" (1946)
* "The Politics of Starvation" (1946)
* "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels" (1946)
* "The Prevention of Literature" (1946)
* "Riding Down from Bangor" (1946)
* "Second Thoughts on James Burnham" (1946)
* "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad" (1946)
* "Why I Write" (1946)

|

1950s|

* "Such, Such Were the Joys" (1952)

Collections|

* "As I Please" (1943–1947)
* "London Letters" (1941–1946)
* Betrayal of the Left (1941)
* Inside the Whale and Other Essays (1940)
* Critical Essays (1946)

Related|

* Orwellian
* Searchlight Books
* Secker and Warburg
* Victor Gollancz Ltd
* Eileen O'Shaughnessy
* Sonia Orwell
* Orwell's list (1949)
* Eric & Us
* Why Orwell Matters
* Orwell Award
* Orwell Prize
* The Orwell Foundation
* Statue

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