MR. B. J. JACOBS SPEAKS OF BRITAIN'S PLIGHT

Chronicle (Levin), 19 August 1947, Page 8

MR. B. J. JACOBS SPEAKS OF BRITAIN'S PLIGHT

The plight of the British. people at the prgsent tilne, the lowering oi British prestxge in Egyptj Burma and Lndia, an appreciable . depreciation xn the „value of the pound sterling and fi siight glimpse of the \var in I.ndonesia, are faeets of tiie- story told by Mr. B J. Jaeobsj immediate past president. of the NeW Zealahd Retufned Serviees Assoeiation, on his i-eturn to Palmeta tOn North after representing the Dominion at the eonference in London of Empire returned serviees ' dssoeia tiohs. Dealing with the relationship of the N.Z.R.S.A. With other servitemen 't liodies, Mr. Jaeobs said the ties.of the R.S.A. eotild not be closer with the British Legion, lts English couriterpart. This cotild be esplained by the faet that the R.S.A. had been made a Poundation membrer of the legion whau it Was begun shortly after the ilrsl world wai' at the suggestion aild with the flhaheial nssistanee of. the then Pi'inee of Wales. The suggestion had been * prom j/te.d by the number of exservicemen's ol'ganisations whieh had spfung up immediately after- the wai and whieh would have def'eated an> attempts that were made to forinulate aehemes for. the assistanee of " ex servicemen. Evefy part of the Britisli Enipire, xvith the exeeption of II alta Was represented at the eonference m Eondon, the Eire branch of the legion also being present. The offieial wrear;> of the* eonference was laid on t!i> cenotaph in Whitehall by the New" Zealand and British Guiana ropre sentatives. The honour was aecordeo Ihe man from British Guiana becausv lie was the only eoloured man to bt present at the eonference. The ultimate suceess of the eonferencie dependel upon the suceess whieh met the farming out of the basic resolutions passed by the onferenee. He eould noc' sa* What these resollitions were at th present as the Dominion president of the assoeiation, Mr. C. O. Bell, would be presenting them to the assoeiation in the near future. The name of New Zealand had nevc Stood higher with the people of Great Britain than it did today, he continued It was a great eompliment to the men and women of the serviees that sucb friendship should be felt towards them by their late ho'sts and he thought New Zealand should be most grateful that the British people had beeil so willing to share their meagre war-time ration with Ihe men and women from this Dominion. The rations of Britain today wero worse than those in wartime. His daughter, Mrs. Marion Johns, tvho left Palmerston North with her husband in 1945, assured hira, that the housewife in England had a very difficult job at the present time. The people looked quire healthy but they did not have the fredi appearance of the New Zealander. llo thought they were really tired of their monotonous diet. Only those in higher authority seemed* to apprBciate the gravify of Britain 's economic situatiun and others seemed to tliink tkat the;. •w^uld emerge from the struggte eventually. The eost of living appeared to be very high, a great change from the old days before the war. Mr. Jacobs said he and Mr. Bell wert quickly initiated into the queueing system. Arriving at Victoria at about 10 p.m. they wanted a taxi to take them to their hotel but found i;hey had to join a fairly long queue with a policeman in eharge and woe betide anyone who tried to go out of their turn. Queueing was more a habit than most people in this .country reaiised ft was npeessary to iine up for buses, iuneheon, shops and visas. In the lastnamed situation the two New Zealanders had been confronted with a long queue when they wished to obtain visas from the Freneh eonsulate. "I'm not waiting in that, Colin, " said Mr. Jacobs. Mr. Bell agreed and it was later discovered that a man in the queue had had £3000 stolen from lrim

wliile he waiteti. There were inany Anrerican tourists in E*ngland and on the Continent. he said. A great many were met in Paris end Brussels. The Belgian eapital was vvefj. • sfocked for supplies. The shop.l(j>peared to be. bursting with food and all typ.es of goods and although ration hig tvas iri force there was little worr, about coupons by retailor or purchaser i btit t-he prices were not easy. In Paris] there was fio miilc, butter or sugar ant! ^ the only bfead was black and hard Tn Paris they were very insistent 011 the ration card. The Frencli countr.v side was intensively cnltivated anfrom the air appeared to be a greas crazy pavement as far as the eye eould see. While in London the two New Zea land delegates met Mr. E. G. Wobber head of the New Zealand Press Assoeia tioir office in London, who was educa: ed at the. Palmerston North Boys' High SehooJ and who began his train ing in journalism a,t "The Manawaru Daily Times". He had given then every ..assistanee and seemed destine-. for the top of the journalistic tree The delegates to the eonference were entertained at Buckingham Palaee by the King arid Queen and the two New Zealanders were invited to atteu-l the cereiriony at Glasgow in whieh Princess Elizabeth received the frei; dom of that city. Thc Princess appeared to be the l&dy of the hour and a measure of this w-as obtained when Mr. Jacobs attempted to buy a pair oi' shoos, Dolcis- Casuals, the type whieh Princess Elfzabeth wore and wlrich then became so popular that they were sold out very quickly. When they touched lndia, Burma an i figvpt they found. that there was very little regard for Britain, Mr. Jacobs added. It was also noticeable that British cuffefiey had little Value 'in these and other Asiatie countries. Something of w-ar conditions w»s experienced at Sourabaya when the night was spent in a hotel half a milc from the front line of the Netherlands Indonesia war. When the 'visitors -ar rived by plane -they Yvere. pleased to know that a truce had been deelarei' but this did not save them from wai conditions. The republteans had cut off the water to the hotel but allowed » siight triekle to come through at time.--during the day. On these occasions ali receptacles in the hotel were nlled and the method of bathing had to be re-

stricted to a pannilcan of water poured over the head so that all would get their share of the preeious fluid. Theiv. was no fighting while the plane was there but there was great troop activity in the area. There was gerat damage in the town and the harbour was full of wrecks.