Siege Economy?
The winter's land and sea disasters cast more dark shadows over the home front last week as Britons struggled gamely through their 31st month of war. In a series of belt-tightening moves:
>Director of Civilian Clothing Sir Thomas Barlow ordered 1,200 firms to manufacture "utility cloth" of wool and fiber. All men's suits will henceforth be single-breasted, have no trouser cuffs, no sleeve buttons. (For similar news of men's fashions in the U.S. see p. 13.) Women will wear shorter skirts -17 inches from the ground -less embroidery, no pleats.
>The Ministry of Food forecast the early appearance of "black" bread. To cut wheat consumption by 10%, a wholemeal loaf, containing more byproducts, will be introduced.
>Magistrates were authorized to fine -L-100, and/or imprison for three months, anyone convicted of destroying cardboard or paper.
> Pencil sharpeners were removed from all Government offices, a special instruction saying "the wood should be cut as little as possible."
> The coal ration per family was reduced to 112 pounds weekly; gasoline from five to four gallons for an 8-h.p. car.
The match shortage had become so acute that a girl could safely beg one from a strange man without being considered fresh. People were trying to keep clean on four 3-oz. bars of soap a month. Whiskey sold for $7 a bottle, and gin (except a bathtub variety) became almost unobtainable. Women stood in long queues to buy the Government's last stocks of canned goods.
Britons, however, were in a mood for sacrifices, and the vigorous New Statesman & Nation urged Whitehall to make the most of it: "A honeymoon period of harmony between Government and the public is before us. It may last for another week, it may last triumphantly for months. . . . Everywhere people are . . . prepared for a change in the whole national system, for the State to take over the mines and any inefficient industry, for the introduction of siege economics."
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.