JUST when you thought we had finished with sugar, a reader asks if anyone remembers the Great Huddersfield Sugar Scandal that happened during the Second World War?
This is stretching memories, seeing as the war ended 67 years ago in 1945, but you never know.
The reader says he was told of the event by friends of an earlier generation and wonders how much truth there was in the story. Apparently, a Co-operative store was raided and a huge quantity of sugar stolen that was subsequently hoarded and secreted all over the town.
During the war, of course, everyone was subject to rationing. Foodstuffs, including tea, meat, butter and sugar were all in short supply. Imported fruit, such as bananas, grapes and oranges, were impossible to obtain.
Everyone had a ration book to ensure an equal distribution of essentials. A weekly ration for an adult was one egg, three to four rashes of bacon, two small chops, two ounces of cheese, eight ounces of sugar, two ounces of butter, two ounces of tea and three pints of milk.
People grew their own vegetables and became inventive with recipes.
And yet people during the war were fitter and healthier because of the enforced diet than they are today, when almost 25% of adults in the UK are clinically obese.
Inevitably, during the war there was an amount of under the counter trading for select customers and a thriving black market.
Presumably the black market is where the stolen sugar went.
But does anybody know?
