COMMUNAL EATING IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 111, 4 February 1941, Page 7

COMMUNAL EATING IN BRITAIN

Suggestions And Some Praise By Writer (Received February 3, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, February 2. Broadcasting this evening, the novelist, Mr. J. B. Priestley, described a visit to n communal feeding centre in Liverpool. “It was clean, bright and sensible, and it had some excellent mural paintings ou the walls,” ho said. "I took my place in a queue which was composed of many different types of people, young and old, rough and smooth. I bought a sixpenny ticket for a meat and vegetables dish, a twopenny one of a sweet, and a penny one for a coffee. “Young women in spotless white, working quickly, deftly handed me a plate of stew and vegetables, some apple pie and custard and finally the cup of coffee. The beef stew was very nicely cooked, though 1 could have done" with a bit more beef in it. The apple pie was quite good, and the coffee, which I expected to be hot and wet but not very strong, was surprisingly good.” Mr. Priestley, who earlier in the broadcast suggested that the Food Ministry should cease calling these restaurants “communal feeding centres,” said that if the communal feeding was necessary, as it probably would be for nt least one meal each day to save waste and obtain maximum value from foodstuffs, there should be “still bigger and more jolly places, with rather more cosiness about them, too, and introduced into them a few of the hundreds of musicians who are. out of work, turning communal feeding into jolly dining. At the same time, drop the official titles and call them ‘The ■Lion at Bay,’ ‘Winston Tavern,’ ‘Blitz Arms’ and ‘Victory Inn.’ ”