WARTIME ENGLAND

Chronicle (Levin), 23 October 1946, Page 2

WARTIME ENGLAND

EXCEPTION TAKEN TO OTAKI ADDRESS A letter from England takes exception to an address delivered in Otaki on wartime England by a lady who returned from England. . The writer states: "The lady who gave the address should, if she wants to- know exactly how this devilish this war could be, should have lived in Kent. through the war. Please inform her that we did not even see sausages of any sort, and for months never even saw fish. I think if we had it three times all through the war I would not be exaggerating. As to other things, well, they are far worse now than previously, and our little hamlet is, I think, about the worst of all. It may be better once the hop picking is over, and all the holiday people have gone back from the coast. Then they may send a little more to this part of the world, but at present affairs are very grim indeed. Still we keep on hoping that things will improve, and one day they surely will. "Our weather is getting worse and worse, although we had hoped for a lovely autumn after the bad summer, but it has been even worse than the summer so far, and one, hears from all over the place of hop gardens being over ankle deep in mud. In many cases hops and the poles have been blown down and crops. thus ruined. It is hoped that the few hops left standing will be fit for harvest. The forecast as to the weather at the time of writing (September 26) was that rain was on its way from Ireland. Blight is prevalent among the potato crops and the onion crops are failures."