''DO NOT GROW FAT"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 1, 7 September 1942, Page 6

''DO NOT GROW FAT"

HARDSHIPS IN SWEDEN NO "BLACK MARKET"

The following letter was received from Sweden recently by a reader of the Christian Science Monitor: Dear C: We have had 110 letters fom you since the end of November, 1941, consequence of war and censors. Please continue to write . . . short letters . . . family news. Do not mention anything regarding the war. Owing to restrictions in shipping, each individual in Sweden gets less and less food. We are surrounded by countries at war and our ocean shipping is stopped. Our milk is poor, and Ave have little butter or margarine. We have hardly any cheese. But we still have some porridge each daj r , and Ave haA'e plenty of potatoes, fortunately. We have very few eggs. Cooking Avithout eggs is difficult . . . have yon tried it? Meat is scarce. Meat and meat products arc all rationed. Fish is still free, likeAvisc poultry and game, but owing" to the cold hard winter, hard to get and very expensive. Sugar is rationed. We have enough for table use, but ayil'l need much more Avhcn avc come to conserve our

berries for winter. From this j-ou might think that we are starving, but that is not the case.. We still have enough and 1

think there is no country in Kuroj: where the population is better o than we, even if we do not gro; fat! Wc are glad tire Govc'rnmei has rationed everything, as it mak< For equal distribution and there i no hoarding. No "black markets. If started, offenders are heavily put ished. Wc have no gasoline. Our moto cars are run by charcoal gas or woogas. Lately Ave have found a ne\ trouble . . . k no rubber tvrcs. If nun can lie imported, we must' walk 01 foot or go back to horse and buggy even for omnibuses. We have fev horses and less hay and oats. The} cannot cat charcoal gas! Of eours< we try substitutes of a'll kinds. substitute for hay is a special pulj made out of wood. The animals ea! it, but I doubt its nourishment. W( also have substitutes for coffee ant tea, cream and butter . . . all poor We get. no mail, newspapers, books from England. But wo have tlu radio. Our papers are full of newt from all over the world. Sweder is one of the best informed countries . . . It was the third strong winter in succession and we were short <d fuel. Formerly wc imported heap? of coal from England and Poland. Now wc get nothing from there. We have cut down some of our forests, but transportation is a problem. Strong Avinters have been followed by drought, which hurls us much for avc' are dependent 011 our waterfa! Is as poAver 'for our industries; electrical works, railways and tramways. As to our family concerns, Ave are all Avell and life still smiles at us . . . Your brother S - . . Stockholm.