SANTA CLAUS HANDICAPPED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 133, 2 December 1943, Page 3

SANTA CLAUS HANDICAPPED

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 1. Australia's second austerity Christmas will find Santa Claus labouring .under much greater difficulties than a year ago, and good will in a large measure must compensate for an acute shortage of gifts. Regulations ban the display of Father Christmas signs in retail stores, as well as advertising references to Christmas or the New Year by name, or to the practice of giving seasonal gifts. No toys have been imported, and the manufacture of toys within Australia has been virtually banned. Except for a small amount of old stock, which, is snapped up in spite of exorbitant prices, the only toys available are made from scrap material by a few returned soldiers and other disabled persons to whom special permits have been issued. High prices are being paid for secondhand toys which two years ago would have been discarded as junk. Though there will be a special release of some Christmas foodstuffs, including ham, bacon, and possibly dried fruits, the Australian housewife faces an increasingly austere food position. In the New Year there will be the most severe egg shortage yet experienced in Australia, rationing of meayt to 2£lb per person per weeß, a total | ban on the sale of unsweetened condensed milk, restrictions on the sale of powdered and other prepared milk products, and pegging of ice-cream sales. •