Houses, shops, fences snd vehicles gone unpainted. Only the most ut repairs have been made on s. Indeed, any construction ostng more than. £100 re-licence. and the Government tically diverted painters, carpenters and plumbers to war-time tasks, Tron railings have been torn down for scrap, Roads, 2s I found when I notered through Central England to address meetings, are full of holes any Briton would laugh if he were asked whether he were undernourished. The testimony of physicians is that public health was never better. People are no worse for eating less meat and sugar.
'They have forgotten what a real steak or large-sized chop looks like. Tea, sugar and butter are jealously guarded' by all housewives. A guest who comes for even one meal is distinctly more welcome if he, brings his own supply. Y
Most of the people now eat their porridge and drink their tea with little sweetening, save some saccharine, though restaurants serve a lump or two of sugar on demand. The arrival of rhubarb and England's magnificent snoseberries. presented housewives with a terrible dilemma.
Here was something to satisfy the craving for fruit. but how could it be made palatable without sugar?
After the war the British will know more about soups, whole Wheat breads, new ways of cooking vegetables, and fruits. They may not keep on using Woolton pie—medé of diced potatoes, cauliflower, turnips and carrots, with a little oatmeal, a pastry crust end brown gravy—but they may retain some other healthful innovations The Government demands that everybody give his efforts to' the Nearly everybody- except- young children and old people "does socially valuable work. Many boys of fifteen and sixteen pay income. tex on their mümitions wages, and have seen a.. grandmother "bicycle away to her daily job in a maternity hospital People who have lost nearly everything—kindred, home, savings—can be encountered on every side. Few who have suffered loss care to complain.
Nearly everyone in Britain expects to be poor after the war. "We shall all-be poor together," they say. It is hard to see how any rich cam survive. It is practically impossible for even the richest Briton nowadays to have an income of.more th 25000 a year.
Britain, in brief, is in a stateo profound and far-reaching upheaval. Carrying the heaviest war burden. off her history, she has had to reorganized] her nationa: life im the most dram tie fashion. From top to be society is being transformed. HM best evidence of the fine quality-e British civilization is the fact ha this social end economic reorgani tion is being carried through whi more than spartan fortitude—wit self-sacrificing cheerfulness. hi
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.