FOOD IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26221, 19 September 1950, Page 2

FOOD IN BRITAIN

MRS CECIL CHESTERTON’S LETTER For several years Lady Acland (Browns road), with support from some friends, has sent food parcels to England, for the benefit of the inmates of the Cecil Houses homes for women, founded by Mrs Cecil Chesterton. At the Cecil Houses in London women can obtain clean, comfortable lodging and a good meal for -a very small sum. The first Cecil House, opened by Mrs Chesterton in tnemory of her husband, was so very successful that other similar homes have been established in different parts of London and are all well patronised. This year Lady Acland, feeling that food was now more plentiful in England, sent Mrs Chesterton a sum of money instead of the usual parcels of food. She has now received from Mrs Chesterton a letter of grateful acknowledgement for the gift of money, but it is clear that food parcels, described by Mrs Chesterton as “your magical parcels,” would still have been most welcome. “I have been told that the Australian and New Zealand papers have suggested that food is now flowing over England like milk and honey,” Mrs Chesterton writes. “It is not. Our meat grows older, smaller and more stringy. It is kept in refrigerators for anything from six months to two years, so by the time we get it it has lost its original taste. There are still the same restrictions on food. Our jam is just glue. Although we had a spate of eggs earlier in the year, we are now back to stringent rationing.” Many who have discontinued sending parcels to England may be moved by this letter to consider sending Christmas parcels to friends and relatives.