DRABNESS IN BRITAIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 7, 9 January 1946, Page 4

DRABNESS IN BRITAIN

AFTERMATH OF WAR PEOPLE FEAR EXPORTS ARE PENALISE THEM (Special Correspondent— N.Z.P.A.) ' Recd. 6.30 p.m. London, Jan. 8. “Drab” is the word which is being much used in Britain to-day. It is being applied by average men and women to their workaday life, and by soldiers returning from overseas to lhe conditions generally. The people, it is said, are inclined to be short tempered, rude, and, generally, the atmosphere is regarded as caused by the aftermath of war and the prospect of continued “austerity”— a word which has become heartily disliked. It, therefore, is interesting to learn cl some of the conditions noted by members of the House of Commons in their constituencies during the recess. On the whole they found that peace had not yet brought plenty, an V, that difficulties had not greatly d|A minished. “

In London a shortage of gas for cooking and heating is dwarfing other worries. In the suburbs bad transport arrangements are adding hours to the working day. In the country a shortage of every household necessity is causing irritation. Everywhere the housing problem seems no nearer solution.

Viscountess Davidson, Conservative for Hemel, Hempstead, said: “The problems I met every day in my constituency are exactly those which have confronted us ail through the war; only they are a little more complicated. Food problems are a great deal more difficult, than in the worst part of rhe war. Sheets are so patched that very little of the original material remains. Towels,' table linen, curtains, and carpets are almost falling to pieces. We all realise that export markets are a necessity, but a healthy home market is necessary, too. In housing, many private builders would be going ahead if only some of the controls were relaxed.”

Mrs. Jennie Adamson, Socialist member for Bexley, Kent, said: “Things are getting better, but I would not like to say we are yet blessed with that greater variety of goods and more varied diet we all desire so fervently. I notice, when I do my own shopping, that there more assistants in the shops and that means shorter queues. They don’t keep me waiting long at the butcher's, the grocers, and the green-grocer’s, but I haven't been lucky enough to get any oranges. When it comes to clothes it is a different story. I am being asked about clothing worries all the time. People are stopping me in the street to ask if I can do anything about it. I am constantly asking the Board of Trade when they mean to give us better clothes, shoes and furnishings, and I have told Sir Stafford Cripps that he musn't send everything abroad—he must leave something for the people at home.” Judging by information from the provinces the members of the House of Commons found the people much more concerned with immediate problems like demobilisation, housing and re-starting civilian production, than with the Government's plans for nationalisation of this, that or the other industry. Evidence increases that in many parts of the country the people are worried by lack of information regarding the progress being made in house-bulldi«g. More exact facts concerning the number of houses being erected than Mr. Aneurin cared to divulge are wanted. Manv Commoners, like Mrs. Adamson, found that while the importance of pushing ahead with export trade is realised, there is a fear that the need for providing consumer goods for the home market is perhaps being overlooked. It is expected, when Parliament reassembles o n January 22, that Ministers will he faced with a barrage of questions about demobilisation, housing and the industrial change-over.