SHORTER RATIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 145, 21 June 1941, Page 7

SHORTER RATIONS

NAZI GRUMBLINGS "Everybody Trusting That War Will End This Year" Rec. 2 p.m. RUGBY, June 20. So little is known of actual living conditions in Berlin that even when such information is available it must be accepted with the strictest caution. It is, however, interesting to read an article in the Swiss newspaper "Die Tat." from its Berlin correspondent. He says: "There is a prevailing mood among the German people describable as exceeding irritation. Housewives queuing up are probably the loudest in their grumblings, and vent their ire without bringing serious consequences on themselves. "Rations are unexpectedly shorter this summer, which is attributed to the necessity for laying in stocks to tide over a long period. Nobody knows why. Many people are onlykept going by habit, for their privations began so long before the war that the youth of Germany does not know any higher standard of living than the present one. Everybody is trusting that the war will end this year as Hitler promised. From the humblest workmen to the bigscale employer, all cling to and talk of this prophecy. "Among the mass of the people, many faces are sallow with privation The poorer classes are beginning to look ragged as the cloth rationing system does not cover the barest needs, and the quality of ersatz materials has deteriorated.'