WAR LOAN SIDESHOWS.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 250, 23 October 1942, Page 4

WAR LOAN SIDESHOWS.

[To The Editor.) Sir,— I see by The Express that a combined military and air display is to be held at the Vernon butts on November 10 for the purpose of interesting people in the War Loan, and to make them realise that the money to be raised will be spent in equipment for the fighting forces. I don't see how this display can be of any value at all from either of these points oi" view. In the first place, the people from whom anything substantial in the way of contributions could be expected will all be too busy at- work (in their shops or offices if these are to remain open, or behind closed doors if a. hohday is being observed), to attend the function, and in the second, the people should know by this time where the money goes to. A question on many lips is, where is the petrol to come from to transport thousands of people up to the butts? Bus transport is hoped for, your paper says. Well, buses use petrol, too, and buses couldn't hope to cope with a crowd of any dimensions. Commercial life is being seriously handicapped through lack of petrol, and private cars have to subsist on a starvation diet, so I think that if there is any petrol to spare it should be distributed amongst these consumers, and not eaten up in conveying holiday crowds to a display that by its very nature, exciting and instructive though it may be, cannot be any other than a financial "flop."

LOAN SUBSCRIBER.