PETROL RATIONS AND JAM MAKING

Evening Star, Issue 23697, 3 October 1940, Page 5

PETROL RATIONS AND JAM MAKING

ASPECTS OF WAR-TIME ENGLAND SWANS EXPLODE MINES Letters coining from England are unanimous in revealing the outlook of people towards the German air raids. A letter received by a Dunedin resident from a correspondent in'a. northern coastal town in England, besides stressing this point, also makes a few passing references to other aspects ol life in n'ar-time Britain, and these are of some interest. This letter was written in the second week in August, when the airblitz was well imder way. The correspondent begins, _ “ The siren Ims just wailed out (5.4.) p.m.), and white 1 wait tor the ‘ all clear 1 am jolly well not going to waste time, so will try and get a letter off to. von. . . . •‘*l still have my car running, but have only four gallons a month with which to keep going to my old ladies, who live 20 miles off. 1 have friends, too, in the 1 five-mile area,’ but one is not allowed to take a private car in that coast district. 1 leave mine locked up at the side of the road, and then one can cither walk or bicycle inside the area. Aly friends took rue to see some bomb _ craters near their house; they were just deep pits in the heather and no damage had been done. “ I can’t say the idea of invasion is worrying us at all. One feels so secure in the thought of our 11.A.F. and all our wonderful troops and the Navy. Everyone here is trying to make every pot of jam they can, but sugar is the difficulty—it seems the only food we are short of. It is a record plum year, indeed many branches are breaking

under the weight of fruit. French beans, too, are being salted in jars for the winter, and presently the blackberries will he ripe. -- “It is most comforting to hear the Air Force men thundering into action overhead a few minutes after the siren has sounded. When that happens I feel I can leave it to them and turn over and go to sleep again. So far I have not left my bed. “ They have mined the river, and every now and then weed collects around the mines. Swans sometimes bump into them, and they go oft' with a great explosion. However, we are getting used to hearing odd crashes and bumps in the night.”