GOODS SCARCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21900, 19 December 1945, Page 4

GOODS SCARCE

AMERICANS’ PROBLEM EXERCISE OF PATIENCE In times of shortages it is common to find some people thinking that conditions in their own country are the worst in the world, and that they lack the opportunities and advantages of the inhabitants of other nations, especially .the United States. But far from being a land of plenty to-day, the United States appears to be suffering from an acute shortage of civilian goods. “The markets back here,” writes a member of the Marine Corps to a Gisborne correspondent, “are still far from being well stocked with civilian goods due to the slowness of conversion.” Many of these goods, such as radios, washing-machines, motor-cars, electrical appliances, magazines and coffee percolators, are judged necessities of life by the American public and their scarcity is being sharply felt. Contrary to popular belief, cigarettes are in very short supply in the United States and many civilians have had to restrict their smoking.

Surprise has been expressed in some quarters in New Zealand at the slowness of the reconversion of factories in Britain to peace-time production. The fact that the United States has also not yet been able to swing back into full civilian production emphasises the difficulties besetting those two countries, and the necessity for continued patience on the. part of .the buying public.