In 1921, Churchill was tasked with the complex process of managing the situation in the Middle East. Keen to limit the expense involved in the British occupation of the former Ottoman territories of Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq), he proposed that they should be run by a Middle East department of the Colonial Office. Set up in February 1921, its staff included T. E. Lawrence, ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

In 1900, most Londoners ate their meals at home. Most working men returned home for their midday meal and those who didn’t ate plain British food in plain British ‘chophouses’. Wealthy men dined out at their clubs or, if they were very adventurous, at French restaurants. During the Second World War, restaurants were initially exempt from rationing; the wealthy were supplementing their rations by eating ‘luxury’ off-ration food. This was strongly resented by those unable to afford to eat out; new restrictions were introduced in May 1942 so that restaurants weren’t able to charge more than five shillings per customer and meals couldn’t be more than three courses (and only one of these could contain meat or fish or poultry). But even restaurants couldn't always offer escape from the monotony of potatoes, oats and cabbage: in 1944 Simpson's-in-the-Strand was serving Creamed Spam Casserole.

In 1917, when Germany began sinking ships that were bringing food (and military equipment) to Britain, and the country had just six weeks' food left, the Government initiated the rationing of food supplies. Even after the end of the war, sugar and butter remained rationed until 1920. Bread was subsidized but in 1917, British people were told to eat twenty five per cent less. Even the fighting troops had their food rationed. Compare . The US faced similar issues during the First World War. The country was in a severe economic depression, with many living in poverty, and .

V H Mottram’s (1932) gives recipes to help families economise: For the “really poor”, ingredients include white and brown bread, suet white flour, rice, tapioca, sago, potatoes, dates, currants and figs. For the “merely poor”: butter, parsnips, raisins, milk, sweet biscuits, some pork and beef. Those on a ‘moderate income’ could turn to (1937), with twelve menus for breakfasts, luncheons and dinners for all four seasons. Recipes included salmon mayonnaise, roast fowl, asparagus with cream sauce, oysters , fillets of Beef a la St Aubyn, roast partridge and all kinds of fish – fresh, saltwater and shellfish.

University of Zurich What is this plight to which Europe has been reduced? Some of the smaller states have indeed made a good...