SARCASM IN ITALY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1940, Page 6

SARCASM IN ITALY

OVER GERMAN RATIONING. REDUCTIONS ON SUPPLY OF CLOTHING. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) RUGBY, November 23. Sarcastic references to Germany’s rationing system are contained in a recent issue of “Popolo di Roma,” and arc quoted in today’s “Daily Telegraph.” With the evident aim of proving to Italian girls that they do not know when they are well off, the writer describes how a German fraulein disposed of all but 14 of her 150 clothes ration card points on one woollen dress, one petticoat, one blouse and a few handkerchiefs and stockings. In order to get a pair of pyjamas after that, she had to borrow some points from a friend. Still needing a new coat, she had to go before a committee which insisted on her depositing her old one before granting the necessary bonus points. She was lucky explained the writer. If she had had neither points nor a coat, she would have had to apply Io the police, who have the right to inspect her wardrobe to sec if a coat was really needed. “A very simple matter —that is. simple in Germany," the "Popolo di Roma" further comments. Hats may still be bought without a ration card. “The police have not yet poked their noses into these branches of feminine elegancy.” the writer adds. The "Daily Telegraph” points out that while such details as these only prove to the Italian signorita that things are even worse in Germany than in Italy, they are hardly likely to win enthusiasm for the Reich,