ENOUGH AS GOOD AS A FEAST

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 120, 16 February 1944, Page 8

ENOUGH AS GOOD AS A FEAST

Rationing In England

“It is true that in Britain practically pvprvthinc is either rationed or oft tne market altogether.” says Lord Elton. in “London CaHing,” “but it is surprising how comparatively little these shortages inconvenience one by now. In. fact, s of them are positively a blessing m dis guise. Food, for example. "There are no luxuries, of course, and, quite apart from luxuries, most of ones old favourites have vanished. It is months, years in fact, since I have made close acquaintance with a genuine mutton chop. 'Substitutes, too, are everywhere, and most of what one eats, it seems to me tastes different, But there is enongn. We are learning for the first time, perhaps, the full significance of the familiar adage ‘Enough is as good as a feast.. “Before the war almost everyone, quite unconsciously, ate too much. And now we don’t. This fact alone had done more for the health of the nation than the whole medical profession put together. I will not say that I do not look forward to the time when I shall he- able to eat a mutton 'chop whenever I feel like it—and that, I think, will be pretty frequently at first—but on the whole I have no complaints to make. “As to clothes. I find myself in two minds. Sometimes I find myself regretting that I did not buy an extra suit or two just before rationing came in. But sometimes I tell myself that in a dim light I still look fairly respectable and that, with taxes where they are, I could not afford new suits anyway. And ou the whole it is pleasanter to believe that you are not buying a new suit because you have not got the coupons than to realize that you cannot buy it because you have not got the cash. “Clothes rationing is harder ou women, no doubt,” Lord Elton adds. “I won’t venture to suggest that it is good for their souls, but I do admire the equanimity with which even the smartest of them have reconciled themselves to going, about with mended ladders in their stockings.”