LODGERS REFUSE TO PAY BOARD INCREASE

Chronicle (Levin), 28 November 1946, Page 6

LODGERS REFUSE TO PAY BOARD INCREASE

LOXJJON. Nearly 70,000 residents in 63 Xationul Bervice hostels tlirouglioul Britain have nowr tleclined to pav the increase of 3s a week for board and lodgings ordered by the Nationnl Hostels Corporation. Theycwill not have meals scrved to theni, so most have decided to get tlieir ration books and do their own cooking. The hostels, run by the Hostels Corporation, were set up during Ihe war and linauced by the Treasurv 011 the understanding that only war-workers were accominodated. At the Causeway Green liostel, near Birmingham, the residents of which were tlie first to refuse to pav the increased fee, volunteers are preparing j Army-type trench stoves in the liostel ' groiinds. Two ex-Anny cooks have offered to do the cooking. The worlcers have been told that tlieir rooms will not be cleaned by the liostel stalf. Mr. A. J. H. Eldridge, a resident of Ihe Stratton 8t. Margaret liostel, ne'ar Swindon, said that they would cook and eat their food on the grass outsidc the liostel. IMr. Jack Dunther, of the Brockworth liostel, near Gloucester, said: " We shall probably be cooking our moalsover an open fire outside the reception office. "