A COMPARISON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 29 August 1942, Page 6

A COMPARISON

BOOT LACES £1 A PAIR IN BERLIN Wartime Britain is paradise compared with Germany. I went shopping in a London chain store to-day. I was struck by the piles of real string and shoe laces. In Germany they are using paper string. Shoe laces disappeared a year ago. and they bring £1 a pair on the black market now. Shoe stores here are filled with first-class leather shoes. You have to give up six of your annual 60 points of clothes ration tickets to buy a pair, but they are of genuine leather. In Germany to get a pair of leather shoes in the winter you must obtain a special permit, and you are lucky to get one. The counters in London have darning thread, shaving cream, crackers — all purchasable without tickets, cards, or permits. In Germany most of those things cannot be bought, even with the proper credentials. Liquor is one thing both countries tend to agree on. In Berlin it has disappeared entirely. Here in London you can still obtain small quantities. Cigarettes and tobacco, once scarce, now can be obtained without much trouble, although prices have doubled Germans are rationed to three smokes a day—if they can get them. Even ir. the streets of the two cities there is a difference. There still are enough buses and taxis in London to create a traffic jam at rush hours. In Berlin 75 per cent, of the buses have been removed from service because of gasoline shortage. In London one sees even more uniforms and of more variety than in Berlin There are at least 10 times as many uniformed women here as in the German capital. In morale, Britain has a wide edge. The British, living better than their enemies, are getting more fun out of life than the Germans. The British can’t see anything but victory ahead.— (Joseph W. Grigg. former American United Press correspondent, on arrival in London from Germany).