LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 5, 6 July 1943, Page 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

SUPPLIES OF WOOL

Several correspondents have written to "The Post" regarding difficulty in obtaining supplies of wool and complaining of the inequity of the present system of selling at a certain hour or putting the wool out without notice. "Only one Mother" writes: "We can get wool for the very young infants, after produci g a lot of red tape, but what of the toddler? My youngest son is 2£ and I cannot buy a warm shirt, nor the material to .nake him one. As for buying a jersey for him. I wonder members of Parliament who do all the talking about birth rates have ever tried to shop for a little chap. I wish one of them would come with me and have the experience of being shown a flimsy thing, thin enough to shoot peas through and being asked the ridiculous price of 27s 6d for it. Not being able to go round the streets daily (I do look after my family) I can never get any wool (the hoarders get it all) to knit a decent garment, so 1 ask of the wise men in power some advice as to how little folk are to be clothed. Perhaps they have a few discarded pullovers I could unravel? Perhaps they will make a few suggestions and carry them out. Firstly, that wool be rationed, as it should have been at the start, to enable the mothers who do look after their homes and families to obtain some, and secondly that manufacturers be requested to produce some garments suitable for the pre-school child. This weather little boys need warm shirts, flannel for preference, and for the decent article we don't mind paying a fair price, but somebody is making a pile out of these articles called pullovers that are expected to keep little boys warm and that leave mother's purse sadly depleted. Little people are not considered at all these days, much alone catered for, and these are a few of the reasons why my own particular cradle will remain empty." . "Still Shivering" writes: "I have not had any wool for myself or daughters for about two years now yet I have heard of some people who nave sufficient wool for two or three garments and are boasting about how much they have hoarded up for next winter and are still able to get more as they have friends who work in the wool departme: t anJ they are 'in the know' when it will be on sale. ... If special wool coupons were issued and each person were allowed sufficient wool, say, for one garment every six months, the same as our fully-fashioned hose, everyone would get a fair chance. It would give women and girls working in essential industries the same opportunity of getting their quota of wool as those who are not in any employment and would also stop mis hoard ing by some people."