SEVERE RATIONING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1941, Page 3

SEVERE RATIONING

ITALIANS STUNNED & BEWILDERED PARALYSING LOAD PLACED ON BUSINESS. PROSPECT OF HARDSHIPS IN WINTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 1. The “New York Times” cot-respond-ent in Rome says Italians are stubbed and bewildered by the sudden rationing, sales ban on consumer goods for a fortnight and threats of neW and radical steps to come. In the spac'o of three weeks Italians have seen their whole ordinary world crumble about them. Italian industry is at least half paralysed by measures that come suddenly and unforseen. All businesses and shops have been ordered to keep, open, though they cannot sell anything for a fortnight. This means that all overhead expenses will, continue, with no receipts coming in. The stock markets crumpled tinder a series of crushing blows-. Many leading shares have plunged down twenty to-thirty per cent since Saturday, th addition to severe food rationing, heat can be turned on in houses only on forty days this winter, instead of 120 days last winter, and gas consumption has been drastically curtailed.