HOPES FOR NEW YEAR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXVI, Issue 27, 31 December 1945, Page 5

HOPES FOR NEW YEAR

FEELING IN BRITAIN

NOTE OF CONFIDENCE. (Special Correspondent.) (Rec. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 29. The old year .ends in Britain on a note of hope—rather dour hope, perhaps, but nevertheless it is a much lighter note than prevailed a year ago when bitterness was mingled with cynicism at the possibility of a protracted war. That mood is replaced today by dourness, based on the realisation that 1946 will be another year of testing and trial for the nation as a whole. The fact is accepted, if not cheerfully then at least patiently, that Britain's fortunes must be re-won and, while a few confirmed pessimists take a gloomier view, the average man and woman appreciate that there is only one thing to do and that is carry on with the job the same as they did throughout the war. .■■'•■

Already, one can detect a note of confidence that in another six months everyday life will be more congenial than it is todays, that conditions all round will be easier and austerity less austere. ' ■

This is based on the belief that industrially the country will by then be moving more rhythmically and that, in spite of suspicions of the American loan, the country will benefit from it in many ways. What the public is looking "for chiefly is an improvement in many things that, though small in themselves, yet taken together 1 make everyday life a more cheerful affairshorter queues, or the abolition of them, the eventual removal of rationing, or at least an enlarged and wider range of rations, more clothes and greater variety of them, more opportunities for ..travel during the holidays, and hot only'in Britain, and, above all, return 'to"regular'home life " and a settled job. - While many people, however, adopt a hopeful outlook—lor to do anything else would be over-depressing—doubts about the future are not difficult to find and many people are convinced that their best hope lies in one of the Dominions.; This is of course a sign of the -times engendered among some by a feeling that life in Britain will continue dour and dull, for several years.