IN TROUBLE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 112, 8 November 1917, Page 8

IN TROUBLE

WAR-TIME RESTRICTIONS FOOD HOARDING. (PRO 1! OCR OWK CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 3rd September. A retired Naval officer and his wife, alleged to have been storing food, have had to pay £50 each, and costs, in consequence. In these days there must be no hoarding and no over-liberal supplies, and every house under suspicion is liable to be visited by the police. In this case; the Police Superintendent said ho found in defendant's house more than 3001b of flour, and n. large quantity of other foodstuffs, including sugar, tea., coffee, cocoa, potted tongue, corned beef, potted beef, preserved plums, apricots, gooseberries, and peaches; also cheese, butter, margarine, Quaker and Provost, oats, and ha.m, and 26 Christmas puddings in tins. The household consisted °£ four, with an occasional charwoman. The flour was more than was necessary for the immediate requirements of the occupants of the house. Some of the tea. and margarine had become unfit for consumption owing to having been kept top long and improperly stored. j WITHOUT A PERMIT. In peace there are no restrictions. During war there are many, and this a man at Whitby has found to his "Teat cost—a fine of £100, with the alternative of two months' imprisonment. Defendant, an engineer, was summoned, and for proposing to buy war material—to wit, a .32 automatic pistol—without a permit, arid with attempting to buy the pistol." He Pleaded guilty to the first summons, bir H. Bodkin said the defendant carried on business at Whifcby, an area in which it was essential .thai the Defence of the .Realm, Regulations should be obeyed im- I phcrtly. The defendant had made three attempts to get pistols of greater calibre than .23 by advertising for them. An oflicer from the War Office found on the defendant's premises at Whitby a ?2 revolver, and some .32 cartridges which would have fitted a .22 automatic pistol, which defendant, had twice advertised '*;, / he .defence urged that he was a skilled engineer, and was desirous of obtaining the pistols to experiment with in relation to an invention of his own. His father had been Mayor of Whitby, and there was no doubt about the defendant's A VICAR'S NEEDS. SEVEN TO WAIT ON ONE. A Herefordshire vicar—a widower without family—applied for the exemption of his gardener, aged 37, and he had to admit that he kept four menservants and three maidservants at the vicarage where he lives alone. The case had been adjourned for the vicar to explain his! need of all these servants—viz., a butler I (a coloured man), coachman, groom, and gardener. The butler and coachman are over military age, the groom is 18 next month and will go, and the gardener, all I able-bodied.

The Chairman: Do you consider it patriotic, that you are doing good to your country, by keeping seven people to wait on you in these times?—l must have someone. The horses want looking ai \ have a lar&6 Parish with two churches to attend to.

The Chairman: What land have you? —About 20 acres, grass chiefly, which requires looking after. The garden is l- 2 - acres, and requires the attention of expert men.

After a private consultation, the tribunal dismissed the gardener's claim to exemption on domestic grounds. "As for there being any need for you in your present employment," said the Chairman, 'we further consider there are no grounds to substantiate that claim. It may not, perhaps, be within my dntv to express any opinion on the fact that four menservants and three other servants are kept at this place, but I am of opinion that it is scandalous that a minister of the Gospel should attempt to justify his conduct in keeping all these servants in these times. Our country is at war, but I am afraid this reverend gentleman does not recognise it, but merely recognises the necessity of keeping himself in luxury and ease. I will say no more."