DOGGED COURAGE OF PEOPLE OF ENGLAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21854, 26 October 1945, Page 2

DOGGED COURAGE OF PEOPLE OF ENGLAND

ENDURING SPIRIT

BRITAIN IN WARTIME

DENUDATION OF HOMES

“Nothing that one could say in appreciation of the ordinary people in England could over-rate their absolute steadfastness through all the crises of the war. Rationing, physical dangers, and social difficulties of the all-in war effort put a terrible strain upon them, but they came through everything determined to finish the job. Those of us who saw something of the private troubles of men and women in the services and out can only stand amazed by their fortitude.”

This opinion was expressed to-day by Junior-Commander Shirley Ormerod, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. B. Ormerod, Waimata, who returned to New Zealand by the Andes early this week after more than seven years’ absence, the greater part of which she spent as a member of the forces in the United Kingdom, including a lengthy period on staff duties connected with anti-aircraft defence in which women were largely concerned. Having registered to service before the outbreak of war, Miss Ormerod was called upon immediately upon the declaration of hostilities, and spent most of her service period in or about London and the south of England. Insisting that her observations covered only the immediate environment in which she worked, she nevertheless gave a picture of conditions which people in New Zealand will find difficult to assimilate. Home-front Anxieties The compulsory calling-up of women for service and for industrial employment gradually swept up all the surplus personnel in the homes of Great Britain, she remarked, and the war's demands eventually absorbed a large proportion of those who normally kept the households of the nation going. For those who went Into the services the situation had plenty of disadvantages, but for those who were left at home the situation must have been terribly difficult, for they had to contend with queues, shortages of fuel and other supplies, the tending of the sick and aged, and anxieties for relatives in the services which the latter in very few cases shared. “It was on the home front, I think, that some of the best jobs of the war were done,” said Miss Ormerod. Food was a constant pre-occupation for those who did not share the service rations, and while households with numerous members fared reasonably well, the rationing level undoubtedly meant hardship for people living singly or in twos and threes. Larger groups sharing the same sources averaged out reasonably well, as in the case of army messes, where variety in appetites produced the illusion of plenty for the individual. Those who had to depend on an individual ration, or on the pooling of two or three rations at the most, simply got what they needed rather than 'what they miirht have liked. The rationing system operated excellently and fairly throughout the war-

people gave the wartime administration full credit for that —but the best system in the world could not put a variety of food on the dinner-tables in small homes. Women in the Services Social dislocation likewise developed from the removal of so many people from their normal routines, and many members of the women’s service, recruited from homes in which their earnings had been important before the war, were in sore straits over the situations they had left, behind them. “Many of the girls in the unit I was attached to—an ack-ack battery—came from the north of England, and they were deeply concerned over how matters were going at home in the north. A lot of them were sending half their small service pay to help their parents, though that help was small enough,” said Miss Ormerod. “Those who had responsibility in the units did their best to make the troubles of these girls as light as possible. The official policy definitely laid it down that this should be so, and anyone who neglected social problems in a yinit courted real trouble. “One had to do one’s best as a matter of humanity for these girls whose peonle were left to manage as best they could, and efforts were made by reasonable allowances of compassionate leave to enable them to help physically in their homes. It was not possible to meet all emergencies, but there was every encouragement for officers to do the best they could,” she added appreciatively. Tough Times For Civilians _ It was in meeting private people outside . service circles that a visitor to Britain in wartime received the keenest impression of indomitability. For those in the services, the work they were doing was generally absorbing. They did not know much more than their non-service friends what was happening in the war at large, but they had the satisfaction of being occupied on a job which contributed something to the Anal victory. Fo>! those outside the services, on the other hand, there was little enough to lighten the general atmosphere of strain. In the critical period of the war, from early 1940 to late 1942. there was barely a gleam of hopeful prospects; yet people went doggedly on holding their faith that things would come right, enduring shortages and heaping up their war-savings for the use of the country —complaining never. There were examples of selfishness and especially in small matters there were evidences of exploitation—such as the reservation of goods in short supply for those who could afford to buy fairly, lavishly of other goods. But the number of these instances, in relation to the size of the problems dealt with day by day, was small. The average man or woman in the United Kingdom put what’he or she had into the war effort as a duty and made no bones about it “Conditions in Britain will not come back to normal for a long time probably, and there is natural disappointment that the end of hostilities did not bring relief from the mnior shortages such as , food and fuel,” added Miss Ormerod. i