WAR CHRISTMAS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 8

WAR CHRISTMAS

UNUSUAL FEATURES SEASON IN BRITAIN SHOWING DIFFICULTIES Ey Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LOXDOX, Dec. 20 After a day of intimate gatherings and irrepressible good cheer, and a Christmas night of unbroken peace, Londoners awoke refreshed, says a British official wireless message. The black-out and the silence of Christmas bells yesterday were, the sole reminders of the tasks and I perils still to lie faced, and j throughout the capital families gathered round firesides and drank toasts to the King and to absent ones. While many parents took the welcomo opportunity to visit evacuated children, availing themselves of an unexpectedly generous allowance of trains, the greater part of tho citizens made it a "stay at home" Christmas. Shops Without Windows London's streets to-day showed a contrast to a peacetime Boxing Day in tho absence of large holiday crowds, owing to the fact that there was no official bank holiday this year. The air still, however, seemed to bo pervaded with a spirit of quiet enjoyment mingled with the profound conviction that Britain will see through any big job she has on hand, which has been the characteristic feature of the present | Christmastide. j Certainly this Christmas did not I appear to be normal, nor even like last Christmas, because there was a shortage of many commodities which were then available, and prices generally of foodstuffs, clothing and luxuries aro much higher to-day. Nevertheless, the shopping streets in London were crowded. Many shop premises were without windows. Owners of hundreds of shops where windows have not been shattered have boarded up the windows, leaving areas of only two or three feet square open to tho street. Drop in Luxury Buying There was considerable reduction in the buying of luxury and other articles which are subject to the purchase tax. Suburban street markets were as busy as over, but there was an absence of cheap turkeys, chickens and lamb. Housewives had to give considerable thought to providing Christmas fare for their families. Poulterers found a method of recouping themselves on turkeys which they purchased before prices were controlled. Jhey charged from 2s to 13s Gd for plucking and cleaning a turkey, whereas formerly it was always dressed gratis. Many postmen's wives accompanied their husbands, assisting to dcli\er swollen Christmas mails.

BRITONS IN FRANCE HUMORIST'S COMPLAINT LONDON, Dec. 20 The English humorous writer, Mr. P. G. Wodehouse, told the Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain that before his transfer to an Upper Silesian prison camp he and other British subjects were imprisoned at Loos, where tho French police treated them as criminals, allowing them outside their cells for only one hour daily. NEW VICHY STAMP VICHY, Dec. 20 The French Post Office on January 1 will issue franc stamps bearing a portrait of Marshal Retain.