BRITAIN SMILES AGAIN

Chronicle (Levin), 16 April 1947, Page 2

BRITAIN SMILES AGAIN

WEEK'S SUNSHINE TRANSFORMS LAND LONDON, April 14. The British people are siuiling again. Their cheerful faces are a direct refl.eeaon of nearly a full week's sunshine ,.11(1 the sunniest weekend. sinee last Jnly. In the space of a few days there aas he&n a transformation in the gen^ral atrnosphere and in the countryside. With douDie summer time darKiiess does aot fall now until after 9 p.m., so that .ooking back over the period of aj few short weeks and remembering 1 the jflzz;ards and floods, Britain today! .jems an entirely different country mcl the winter a bad nightmare. Spring, which is now weli atlvanced, eeins to have arrived suddenly, aini ,aud 'which oniy recently was sheeted ui wliite, .cold and unfriendly, is now becoining iilmed in pale green. Though tne linijoritv of trees still remain "gaunt and black, dalTodils are out, diere is lit'e in the hedgerows, autumnsown cr'ops are pushing through, and everywliere tractors are cliugging. • Tractor-drivers are working in teanis aiul in niany ' districts are dragging their implements througliout the niglit. Thougli farmers are generaliy live weeks beliind with their work, inany are already estimating that if. the drj weather continues for a fortnight .they will be able to get abfeast of the season. So far 150,000 .people have volun teered to spend ,at least a week of their holidays heiping farmers, and the first volunteer carnp has started in the Surrey Hills, where workers receive ls 3d an hour planting potatoes. People are coming _ from factories, shops, colleges and training universities to help in one of the two hig battles of Britain this year — food production. The seqond is, of course, coal. In gardeus and allotinents all over the country millions of spadct were turning the ground during the past weekend, 'when, in two davs, there was more than 20 hours' sunshine in many parts of the country, with the.thermo-. meter climbing to 66. Many gardeners were attacking soil with added zest, egged on bj' housewives fresh from the tiresome quest in shops for green vegetables. Prices in reeent weeks for such vegetables liave been fantastic, ranging wp to 2s a pound for sprouts, 2s 6d for cauliflowers, and ls 6d for iettuces, and with expensive potatoes often being rationed or unattainable. . • Seaside towus have already begun to boom with early holiday-makers. Dur- \

ing the weekend thousands of car"ownors who saved up their petrol coupons during the winter massed on the roads, and trajhc nearly reached a prewar peek. The further outlook is ...for, continued- hne weather. .. . .