COMPLEX RULES FOR SIMPLE CLOTHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 105, 30 October 1942, Page 4

COMPLEX RULES FOR SIMPLE CLOTHES

To go without frills and furbelows is no great hardship in time of war, and the new regulations gazetted last night' to-bring about greater simplicity in clothing will probably be accepted quite cheerfully by the public. It is not possible without a careful examination of the specifications drawn up by the Standards Institute to judge what the full effect will be, but it seems probable that the principal saving will be in labour. If such a saving is effected, and costs of manufacture are reduced, the public will expect the Price Tribunal to safeguard their interests by ensuring that the consumer shares in the benefit. There is little to suggest at present that the saving in material will be very great. There is even a possibility that the elimination of some features of clothing will reduce the wearing qualities of articles. If one effect of simplification is to make necessary more frequent purchases, so far as such purchases are possible under a system of rationing, many people may wonder whether the regulations will really accomplish very much. ' They may be regarded as a wartime gesture and the question may be asked whether the issue of elaborate regulations is the best way to achieve simplification. Could not the manufacturers and users of clothing have been asked to conform to simpler standards, not under threat of penalty but as a contribution to the war effort? Practically, every week sees the gazetting of new regulations .of one kind or another imposing all kinds of restrictions and providing for all kinds of. penalties. It would be a welcome change if the Government, where such a course is possible, asked for co-operation instead of drawing up hard and fast rules which may prove irksome to all concerned.