OUT TO WIN THE WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21624, 9 April 1940, Page 8

OUT TO WIN THE WAR

Britain’s United Effort

A Traveller’s Impressions

"A trip abroad at the present time is full of the most absorbing interest, and I was particularly impressed while in England with the manner in which the population is putting up with the numerous discomforts and inconveniences due to the war,” said Mr J. H. Duncan, who has just returned from a tour of Great Britain and the United States of America. Mr Duncan said it was impossible out here to realise that there was a war on. One had to be closer to it and to be affected by the restrictions which it forced upon the people. "Imagine all the motor traffic in New Zealand and multiply it by 10; send it out on the roads in fog and the inky night of a black-out. A small pocket torch was the only light we were allowed to use on these occasions, and there was one girl who was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment for flashing a torch about after she had been warned by a policeman not to do so.” Mr Duncan said the people )f London were taking the inconveniences in a light-hearted spirit and there was no doubt that all believed that the Allies would ultimately achieve victory though it might take a long time. All were prepared to do what they could to help. Everyone in the United Kingdomsomething like 50,000,000 or 60,000,000 had been issued with identification cards to be used in the event of anv national emergency. He had received one bearing the legend AKAY 90/2, which was sufficient to allot him to a certain classification or group. There had appeared to be no shortage of foodstuffs, though everyone was prepared for rationing if necessary. A temporary shortage of sugar had occurred during his visit, but he thought this was due to large buying by those who had feared on the outbreak of war that there would soon be none. ' I went into a huge restaurant,” he said, “and told the waitress that I did not want sugar with my tea. "That is just as well,’ she replied, ‘because we have none.’ ”

Petrol, on the other hand. Mr Duncan went on, was being strictly rationed, and only 10 gallons a month was allowed- for each private car. He had been taken on a run by a friend who had used up the whole of his month’s supply for the purpose. “You see prominent business men riding bicycles in to work every day. and at one stage,” he said. “I had visions of coming back here and buying a bicycle for myself.” Tire American scene, Mr Duncan said, was very different. There seemed to be a great deal of money about, and people were not afraid to spend it. He had got only a little over three dollars for his pound, and had consequently found his visit there an expensive one. There appeared to be nothing under a dollar—a whisky and soda cost a dollar in most places, and to obtain a seat at the New York horse fair—one of the social events of the year—cost three dollars 85 cents, or about 25/- in New Zealand money at the present rate of exchange.

The Americans could advance many good arguments why their country should not come into the war. It was far removed from Europe, and they could not see that they should be put

to the cost of a war every 20 years or so. Mr Duncan paid a visit to Boston before the Byrd Expedition sailed, and he said he had met a good number of men he had known on the previous expeditions. The snow tractor had been the subject of a great deal of newspaper publicity in the States, where the papers had made the most of all small delays and mishaps, with the result that Interest in the expedition was very wide.