TO BRITAIN IN SIX DAYS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25328, 30 October 1947, Page 3

TO BRITAIN IN SIX DAYS

CHRISTCHURCH MAN’S FLIGHT Experiences on a business trip to Great Britain, the Continent, and America were related by Mr W. C. Debenham. a Christchurch engineer, in an interview. Travelling oy BOAC plane, he arrived at Sourabaya the day war broke between the Indonesians and the Dutch. Fighting could be observed from the plane, and the hotel where the passengers stayed had its water cut off when the Indonesians captured the control reservoir. The plane landed at Rangoon a few days after five members of the Burmese Government had been shot. There was a curfew from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the city. British business firms there were very apprehensive about their position, and feared they might have to leave as a result of repercussions after the murders. There had been a flying accident at Karachi shortly before their arrival there, and the hotels were booked qut with witnesses at the inquest. As a result, they had to fly from Karachi to Cairo in one day. This was a tremendous ordeal for the party, which landed on the Nile at 10 p.m. He landed in Great Britain after a journey of six days. In London, he was given every assistance by the High Commissioner (Mr W. J. Jordan).

Clothes in Britain One of his main impressions of life in Great Britain was the particularly shabby dress of the majority of men. many of whom had not. had new suits since before the war and wore badly patched shirts, said Mr Debenham. It seemed to him that the women were taking the brunt of the rationing and were going without food for their men folk and children. Several workers from different classes told him that had it not been for their wives going without some of their own rations they would not have been able to continue work.

From Great Britain he went to the United States via Shannon, Ireland. In the latter town he had his first really good meal since leaving New Zealand. When he arriVetTTh New York, accommodation was extremely difficult to obtain, as the world series of baseball games was in progress. Many who did not go to see the games themselves visited restaurants and saw the games through the television sets. Those who could not get into restaurants carried portable radios with them, and everywhere he went, in the streets or on trams and buses, the broadcasts of the baseball games could be heard.

In New York there was an abundance of everything. A very high standard of living existed but’ the costs of food and clothing were about equally as high. Although there was the continual newspaper criticism of Great Britain it was evident that the majority of American people were sympathetic towards her in her present troubles.