JOKES OF THE ALLIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 134, 11 March 1940, Page 6

JOKES OF THE ALLIES

LIGHTER SIDE OF WAR HUMOUR IN ADVERSITY Though the Avar is a serious business, it has not been serious enough to prevent the British and French from making jokes about it., Even in adversity these nations have been famous for their ability to jest Sometimes, of course, these jests have an edge. For example there is the British comment on the oftrrepeated. statement that the country is not at war with the German people, but with their rulers. "The only real trouble with the German minorities, you know, is that they are ruling Germany." The French are saying that "the Germans make war without declaring it, and the Ailies declare war without making it." Also that "the civilians ask when the war will |end, the soldiers when it will begin/' Jests About A.R.F. A.R.P. has flooded the British journals with jokes. One paper printed the statement that it had given Londoners the chance of "seeing the stars of the sky which had been blotted out by advertisements of the stars oil earth " One well-known journal showed two old men stretched out in chairs at their club saying: "Let's see who can invent the best rumour." Another showed a housemaid saying to a mistress: "Another word of complaint, mum, and I quits civilian life." ! "Time and Tide" printed a story ! >f a bachelor husband who found i himself with a large wash on his hands, after hi:; wife and children had been evacuated (and used the bath for it). He found leaning over the bath hard work, so climbed in and finished the job in comfort. One French newspaper siminr.\'' up the situation in the words-: "In 1899 v', was the Boer War. In 1940 it is the bore war"