• Food queue in Wellington Street during World War One.

If the Luton Food Committee require any incentive to pursue their recent demand for compulsory rationing, a walk through Luton today would amply supply it. Throughout the week there had been queues in the principal streets, and whole families have been food hunting from breakfast time to shop closing time.

So general has this become, and such a tax upon some of the shopkeepers, that in some instances shops have been closed throughout the morning in order that the assistants might prepare for the afternoon rush.

Police have been on duty regulating the crowds every day, and matters have now got to such a pass that in Luton at any rate there would be general satisfaction if Lord Rhondda [the Government's Food Controller] carried out the suggestion of the Luton Food Committee and instituted compulsory rationing.

The editorial postbag at this office has been burdened by letters indignant and pathetic, and accepting even a moderate percentage as true there is no doubt that may a family in Luton this week has been quite unable to obtain either butter or margarine. As matters stand there is not equality of treatment, for some have been able to obtain practically full supplies and others have not been able to get any at all.

This morning before 10 o'clock a crowd approaching 500 assembled on the Market Hill waiting for shops to open. In Chapel Street provisions shops appeared the legend, 'No butter, margarine, nor lard'. Similar notices have appeared in Wellington Street, near the bottom of which thoroughfare some inconvenience has been caused by the large crowds, the road under ordinary circumstances being hardly wide enough to accommodate the large amount of traffic.

When it became known yesterday that a provision shop there was to open in the afternoon, many shoppers gathered long before the time of opening, and from then until the shop closed in the evening a long queue was to be seen outside. This morning for a considerable distance above, another shop was monopolised by a varied collection, mostly woman and children, armed with bags and baskets of every description.

At one shop in High Town this morning over a thousand customers were served out with small packets of goods before 10 o'clock.

Only limited quantities of provisions were available, and it is no uncommon happening for shops to dispose of their entire stock of practically every article they sell.

[Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: December 8th, 1917]

The food crisis produced letters in the following Thursday's Luton News, including these examples.

• An angry letter writer, signed 'Butterless,' said: "I would like to bring to light a vicious practice which my wife on Saturday actually witnessed. She was in a shop waiting her turn when a gentleman came in and asked for 7 lbs of ham and half-a-pound of butter. He was served with both and the bill came to over 10 shillings. Another gentleman then asked for butter, knowing that after that incident there was a stock in hand, and was flatly refused. In fact, he was told quite deliberately that butter was kept only for certain customers. The fact is that money is the all-powerful agency."

• Another letter writer said: "Having noticed the crowds of people who gather to buy provisions, if some system on the lines of the following were brought into practice, I consider time would be saved, also unnecessary waiting would be abolished. Say each shop had 600 customers or buyers and they each received a ticket, viz M1 to M100 for Monday, T1 to T100 for Tuesday, and so on all the week, then each person could have their supply quite easily. Also it would be a safeguard to shops against one person having extra while others are not obtaining any supplies. Also it would give those people a chance to get their wages late in the week and cannot take up their stand to buy before."

• And a letter from 'Another Disgusted Mother' said: "Thank God that I am not the mother of five children as I cannot get the necessities of life for my two, what with milk 8d a quart, eggs 5d each, no butter and no margarine. What are we to feed our children on to make them grow into strong men and women? Something should be done, and at once. I, for one, would welcome compulsory rationing, that rich and poor should all share alike in this great crisis of our country, which they are not doing at present. I say, 'Down with the exhibition of our children and all that is sham. Let us have the real thing.' Tell us first how to feed our children. I will be very grateful."