“WE ARE FOR IT!”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20079, 27 October 1939, Page 9

“WE ARE FOR IT!”

HOME-FRONT WAR DOMESTIC ADJUSTMENTS BLACK-OUT OBLIGATIONS COSTS AND PROTECTION “Here we are in the throes of another war, and no one thought it possible. But indeed we were almost afraid that Mr. Chamberlain would come to some arrangement with Germany, and then we would have had the fear hanging oyer us again. So now we are for it!” This is an expression of the point of view of a woman living in Belfast, who in a letter to a Gisborne relative describes her return from a holiday at Cushendun to find herself in the midst of preparations for meeting the threat of air raids. Womenfolk will appreciate more particularly the domestic reactions of the correspondent to the war situation.

"You can imagine our last few days at Cushendun were agitated, to put it mildly, and we were hardly home before we knew that war was almost certain. On Sunday morning (September 3) we had to leave for church befox-e the Prime Minister’s broadcast was made, but were almost certain then that it would be war. Many people came in late, and from the way they looked and moved we knew that it was war,” the writer continues. Home-Coming From Holiday

“Since then I have had to spend my energy making our house absolutely light-pi'oof. I have blue velour curtains in the dining-room, and they do not show any light when pulled round, but the drawing-room curtains arc of flowered linen, and although lined with casement cloth they wei'e not perfect for screening, so I have had to put other old curtains against them. These are next the window, and so do not spoil the appeai'ance of the room,” the writer adds with housewifely concern. 1 The letter then describes how each room in the house, together with the stairs and landings, and' the door transoms giving to the outer air had to be treated for black-out purposes, together with a review of certain discoveries made in the course of the work as to the light-proofing effect of certain materials. “This black-out preparation has meant a great deal of work and expense to everyone, but fortunately I had old curtains which I was able to use. I often thought of throwing them out, - but they have saved us many pounds at this time. Food-Rations and Wardensliip

“Our food is to be rationed next week, but I think I have all that is necessai'y. Sugar, seems to be an item that will have to be watched. Do you remember how we had to use saccharine tablets in 1914-18? I have just made damson jam and have used about half a stone of sugar for that. The children love plenty on their porridge, and are very fond of butter, which you will i-emember also became very scarce during the last war. “The streets are no longer lit, and we do not care to go far abroad at night. Besides, all our time seems to be taken up in the house. Joe is an air raid warden, and does patrol duty to see that all houses in our neighbourhood are darkened; he goes on duty on Tuesdays from 10.45 p.m. to 1 a.m. He will probably be ’at this patrol work all the winter, and it will not be pleasant in the bad weather we get here in the winter months.”

A sidelight on the special problems of Northern Irish residents appears in another paragraph of the letter.

“Castlerock and Portstewart are blacked out, but the Inneshowen lighthouse beams as bright as ever, across Lough Swilly, and the houses in Donegal are all lit as usual. Donegal is in Eire, of course, and Eire is

neutral, and they have an Ambassador from Germany sitting in Dublin and taking it all in. Awful, isn’t it! We hope that the I.R.A. will not try to do us any harm. Some people have fears that in the event of an air raid, they would start fires to show the raiders the location of the shipbuilding yards at Workman, Clarks, and at Harland and Wolffs.”