DISMAL DESMONDS PREDICT HARD WINTER

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25936, 17 October 1949, Page 6

DISMAL DESMONDS PREDICT HARD WINTER

LONDON DIARY

< [From NEVILLE WEBBER, London Correspondent of “The PrcM~]

LONDON. October 4. As day follows day, sunny, calm, and warm in this wonderful summer that is now autumn. I detect a new line creeping into the weather conversation. The opening gambit is still: “Lovely morning again, sir.’’ but following quickly is “Hard winter coming, I’m afraid, sir. We’ll have to pay for this.” . Then the theories. One of the most popular is that the warm weather has , heated the sea so much that there is . an abnormal melting of icebergs in ■ the Arctic. This will soon result in j the water temperature plunging and ; then Britain can expect trouble. These ' dismal Desmonds forecast the hardest and coldest winter since 1946. with the worst coming just after Christmas. I Others talk of weather cycles and ' some mutter about atomic explosions. ■ Several times I have heard of the shocking winter in Australia and the bleat that a severe winter there is automatically followed by the similar conditions in Britain. In reverse, I have heard exactly that cry “down under.” Food Parcel Advice A word of advice about the contents of privately dispatched New Zealand food parcels, which are so gratefully received here each week by thousands of people. Remember that the greatest shortage is still meat and fat. Tins of beef dripping, tongues, sausages, steak, etc., are hailed with absolute delight. Also very acceptable is milk, either dried or evaporated, and available here only on points. Poorer folk are pleased to receive cheese, but a wide variety of expensive Continental cheeses is now available off the ration. Suet is welcome. but docs not travel well in packets. Honey, though dear, can generally be bought.' Don’t send jam. There is plenty here, and it is better than the New Zealand product. Tinned vegetables are also in good supply in Britain. Exiled New Zealanders especially welcome .tinned oysters and whitebait. Cheaper Cigarettes On the market this week are tipped cigarettes designed to save tobacco and dollars. Four-fifths of the length is

tobacco and the remaining <MMH is paper packed similarly to prei filter tipped brands. For the stand size prices arc cut from 3s 6d to 2s lid, and for the smaller ■ from 2s 7d to 2s 2d. Smokers finding that burning lima is sb eight minutes. An official of Carre told me to-day that there is no like hood of reintroducing "tnouthpie cigarettes, which were in hmi quantities in Britain before the w This type, consisting of about »m thirds tobacco with the remaining or third a stiff paper cylinder, is ©inn universally smoked in Russia and Fi land. Cheap Road Travel One of the surprises for the N< Zealander in Britain is the diffr.’ren in price between rail and motor coa travel. On Sunday I went to Win sor (25 miles) for 2s 6d by cqgch; j the return journey by rail cost 4s' Return third-class rail tare to Ed burgh is £5 7s 6d (first-class £8 Is 3( and by coach only £2 10s. Raii thit class to Birmingham and back coi £1 10s 6d. and by coach I9s 3d Tn travel is faster, and there is the | vantage of eating while on the mew but the traveller gets more grin This disparity in fares caused nea bookings on the coaches often weeks ahead. Facts Instead of Legen* Windsor Castle, one of the ve popular historic spots around Londo will no longer be quite as roman for the visitor as it has been. A n order forbids the guides to draw their imagination to add spice to pages of the official guide book. Th must keep strictly to the facts, longer will misty-eyed tourists from over the world (especially the Uni States) gaze at the window fr which Ann Boleyn is supposed to ha made love to Henry VIII. Hist oria 1 say there is no evidence of e • having met there. And Charles II w j no longer creep along the secret pa I sage 1o visit Nell Gwynne’s ; just outside the castle walls, bacau ! Charles didn’t, say the heatMle brutes History, like the Britiah >Mn ard of living, is becoWftg a austere. tx srf*