I remarked recently on the abandonment of a number of traditional London customs normally observed in November. One annual November event which was not cancelled was Rat Week, the high spot of the year in the anti-pest campaign which never ceases. Since the outbreak of war the menace is saíd to have increased, partly owing to the premature destruction of thousands of cats, The problem is all the more important because of the storage of small reserves of food, often in places not intended for storage, by nearly every household.
London is estimated to have 23,000 rats to the square mile. The rat population of the British Isles is computed at between 40 and 50 million about the same as the human population. Though a large proportion of London's rats are to be found in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.