CYCLES FROM BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1942, Page 4

CYCLES FROM BRITAIN

WORLD RATION CUT TO ONE FOURTH. The rationing of bicycles in Britain leaves only one in four of those sent overseas in peace time to be made for export. The figures include the equivalent of bicycles in spares and replacements. Overseas markets are being loyally sacrificed to the “lend-lease” ’ policyagreed between Britain and the United States. Even the number of new bicycles now being produced for cyclists in Great Britain has been cut down to next to none. “Only a few are being ‘made,” states Mr H. R. Watling, director of the Manufacturers’ Union. “It would be ridiculous to turn out bicycles for sport or pleasure today. We are using our war-time allocation of material at home almost entirely for spares and replacements to keep existing bicycles in running order for the millions of munition workers and others on national service who need them for their jobs. For the rest, the industry has been turned over to the direct production of munitions in some form or other. “The makers of British bicycles are 100 per cent in the war, which, by the way, will have its effect on design when peace returns. Alloy steels, aluminium and its alloys will undoubtedly be more widely used. Bicycles will be lighter after the war. “Furthermore, makers of. bicycle components here in Britain will then do all they can' to get going their good friends in the occupied countries who have been knocked out by the Nazis.”