How to Beat Rationing

In blacked-out London the pinch of milkless, eggless, fruitless days began to twist morals out of shape. While public morale rode high, by last week many a Londoner had relaxed his usually rigid code of personal honor sufficiently to treat Government war restrictions in much the same way that the mass of U.S. citizens treated Prohibition. It looked as though game-loving Britons were inclined to think that outwitting the Government was a sporting proposition.

Scotland Yard optimistically reported a 1% decrease in general crime over last year. But, as in the U.S. mass evasion of the unpopular Volstead Act, official figures were unreliable. Police have access only to cases where a complaint has been registered, a culprit booked. The chief evidence of character-loosening was conversation: Topic No. 1 (the war) had been pushed into the background by Topic No. 2 (how to beat the rationing restrictions).

From peers to paupers the major chitsy-chatsy of Londoners was how they got fugitive eggs, lipstick, fruits, silk stockings, perfume, clothes. At a dinner party recently a peer's daughter triumphantly announced that she had persuaded her dressmaker to sell her a new suit without the required coupons. A politician's wife proudly reported buying a fur coat (18 coupons) with no coupons whatever (she contended the garment was secondhand because it had been worn by a mannequin).

Black markets flourished in East End streets. Barrow merchants sold silk stockings (probably stolen goods) with only a pretense of accepting rationing coupons. Crates of oranges, strictly restricted to children, passed through a market speculator to his favored customers. Housewives evaded milk rationing by registering with two companies, thereby getting twice their legal share.

The "no-wrapping" order (to save paper) provided a brilliant opportunity for petty pilferers. Working in gangs--a man or children assisting a woman with a shopping bag--shoplifters raided lingerie, stocking and sweater counters. Scotland Yard reported a 25% increase in shoplifting.

"Curb crawlers" (fences) ferried stolen goods out to the suburbs, sold them, couponless, to housewives. A woman reported to the police that she was offered a pony coat for -L-16 (half the store price) by a woman black-market agent who had about 20 fur coats in the back of her limousine. Other gangs thrived on door-to-door selling in apartment buildings. A laundry collector had a lively sideline in silk stockings.

Police got close to a ring of identity-card forgers who had set up shop in a bombed factory and printed thousands of false identity cards. The gang escaped, abandoning the presses. The black-printed, buff-colored cards had been sold to aliens and crooks for from -L-2 to -L-15.

Some firms contracting to repair blitzed houses were found to be charging ten times fair prices. One contractor asked -L-50 for labor cost on a repair job for which the material cost only -L-3.

An old soldier in Regent Street made a compromise with his ideals, hawked matches to blackout crowds at threepence a box. The boxes contained burned-out matches.

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