YET THEY SMILED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 131, 18 July 1941, Page 5

YET THEY SMILED

A SPIRIT UNBEATABLE ENGLISH LIFE IN WAR To have reached the age of 8!, After having reared a family of twelve is an achievement which deserves to be rewarded with a com-" lortable and placid existence in the winter of a mother's! years, but thia in not the lot of those wonderful wo-> men of England to-day. Instead the trials of war, hitherto inconceivable, are visited upon them. Yet they smile I Such a spirit is borne out and emphasised in a letter received by Mr G. Jennings, of Whakatane, from his mother in England. This: letter, written with a firm hand, strikes! philosophical note and relates jasuolly the conditions under which ?he is spending her declining years. Not u line denoted a grumble, but the facts are written calmly and with out fuss. Reference to the enemy air attacks is made as if it is all in a "day's work," and it is impossible tu read the message without feeling a surge of admiration for those, particularly old folk, who hold the London front with a spirit that is unbroken and unbeatable. That very careful conservation of foodstuffs is being observed in the Old Country is revealed when the writer details her rations. She is allowed only 1 ounce of cheese per week, a quarter of a pound of butter (available in 2 ounce lots), 2 ounces of tea, a quarter of a pound of bacon, half an ounce of sugar and 13'/worth of butcher's meat. No; cake, biscuits, or ingredients for the making of cake, such as currants, .sultanas etc., are available to the old lady.and she adds that on one day of each week she is unable to have milk. Having related this she adds that they are managing quite well, by adding to the diet from tneir own garden, and concludes her letter rheerfullv.