LETTERS FROM ENGLAND

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21215, 11 September 1940, Page 3

LETTERS FROM ENGLAND

HAMILTONIAN WRITES HOME j ' I From a former Hamiltonian, now j resident in England, come letters to her mother i'n Hamilton, telling of wartime conditions in the little vil- • lage where she lives in one of the Home Counties. Paintings of the writer, who is the wife of a cartoonist on an important paper m England, were recently exhibited in the col- j lection on view in Wellington during i thu Centennial celebrations. The following extracts signify the i general determination of the average person in England to do his part in the war and to carry cn his normal life in spite of air raid warnings, and the following concluding sentence, in answer to an invitation to come to New Zealand, is typical of the spirit of the people:—“England was pretty good in the good years, and I’m quite ready to stand by in the difficult times. Nothing would induce me to leave.” Guns From America “The local Defence Volunteers hove been issued with guns from America, which have been kept packed in grease since the last war, and what a job it is to get them clean. The blacksmith has painted his cottage green instead of the usual white, which he thought made him too much of a target in the moonlight. A great many of the men, of course, have to carry on with their work seven days a week, but those working on farms or private jobs, still get their Sundays. It is forbidden now to buy new cars, those being produced being needed for export trade. The rationing of cooking fat has come into force, and eggs are very scarce, Holland of course, in the past sending enormous quantities. “We hear and watch the squadrons go out for their raiding expeditions to Germany. The Australians march with bands, which is something the other forces don’t seem to have. It is rather fine in one sense to feel oneself in the middle of all this turmoil and to know one has a hand in the greatest struggle in history. I wouldn’t be out of it for anything. Each Home a Fortress “Each home is becoming a perfect little fortress in itself against a possible shortage of food. This week I shall be preserving raspberries, and I feel almost a millionare having got my allowance of 30 lbs. of sugar from the Women’s Institute. Six pounds a head is the allowance, but some of the members had no fruit in their gardens and I gained. The village is full of Australian troops. It’s rather thrilling to talk to them. They are a tough lot and after the reputation they left behind them from the last war the neighbourhood is expecting some high jinks. A few wild ones make things difficult for the others. They caught the ducks at the mill pond at Andover and took them home for supper and plaited the tail of a valuable mare into a perfect forest of little plaits, which took hours to undo. And they don’t understand about trespassing on property, but walk where thqy please j which is not a habit to endear themI selves to the property-loving English. / They stand and stare at our cottage, it is all they imagine an English cottage might be, thatched roof, tiny windows, roses round the door and | the old pump on the lawn. “You cannot, thank goodness, real--1 ise how England is feeling in peace- • ful New Zealand. The war effort is i tremendous, every one is doing some kind of war work, on the farms, in the canteens, or in one of the services. I fried 98 eggs at the canteens the other night. An enormous troopcarrying plane has just passed over and its giant wings seemed to cover the entire village. There seems to be more planes in the air than motors on the road now-a-days. This weekend all signposts have been removed as a precaution against Fifth Columnists and we must all carry our identity cards. We had an air raid warning last night, but nothing happened except the noise of anti-air-craft gun-fire on the coast 25 miles away. Strange how quickly one gets used to hearing it. We hear planes all day long and at dawn we hear the air patrol go out and offer up a silent prayer that they may all come back again.” _____