Another War Casualty

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 35, Issue 5, 1 July 1944, Page 7

Another War Casualty

The Melbourne Argus supplement gives the following sad description of life as it is m Brisbane to-day: "It's not much fun living m Brisbane to-day. The northern capital is virtually a barracks town, and the array of evils and abuses that have m varying degrees reflected war conditions m other capitals flourish there m accentuated form. Queenslanders are unhappy abput the bad name their city is earning. Cafes overflow their waiting crowds into the thronged streets, while tired and depleted staffs endeavour to cope with the*rush. The evils that go with these conditions are black marketing and profiteering, and they are rampant. Nobody deplores more than the normal inhabitants the rise of a new class of 'little Hitlers' from these conditions of scarcity and unquenchable demand. They are the 'take vit'or leave it and be damned' class. Shopping is an insufferable ordeal of-in-difference, sniffs,, snarls arid positive insolence. A soldier passing through from New Guinea encountered one of the city's good-time 'honeys.' He walked into a milk bar and was served by a girl with painted fmger-v nails and a brand new accent. 'You don't mean to say,' she remarked to another girl, 'that you're going out ; with an Australian soldier.' He threw the glass of milk over the girl and walked out." This is indeed sad reading. Brisbane, if this description of her present conditions be accurate, is indeed another war casualty. Could it be said that New Zealand's' main cities are exempt from this kind of life?" ; —Church Chronicle, Ballarat.