anna oe:

LONDON LETTER

H. O'HARA

Family's cheese ration

‘just enough

Y butcher wrapped my two-

Shilling, (30c) piece of ration-
ed lamb in a bit of old news-
paper and asked, “‘Will that be
all the meat for this week?”

“Oh yes,’’ I replied, ‘‘it will be
plenty, besides, I can’t afford
to take more.”

This phrase “can’t afford all
my rations” becomes increasing-
ly heard as the cost of living
continues its sharply rising
spiral, Butler’s budget has de-
liberately cut many of the food
subsidies, with the result the
British housewife has faeed sev-
eral price increases in most
foods; she is now paying more
and more for the same amount
of food as previously, and less
on the other amenities of life.
In June of this year the cost of
living shot up three points, with
a further increase of two points
likely in the autumn,

The burden of supporting a
erippling arms program is plac-
ed squarely on the shoulders of
the ‘British workers, and no one
sees the results more Glearly
than the (British housewife in
her task of feeding and clothing
her family.

7

Upon arrival in England a
year ago, I required some’ weeks
before becoming used to these
stringent rations, and was amaz-
ed at the ingenuity shown by the
English women in _ providing
three meals a day for her family,
I well remember the consterna-
tion that filed me when I was
first confronted with my choice
of meat for the week. The shelf
in the open window of the
butcher shop I was registered at,
had a few odds and ends of what
apepared to be fatty meat and
bones. scattered over it. All I
could recognize with certainty
were two small roasts of beef,
of which I bought one, (I might
add, that ‘‘week’s” ration was
one meal for two). On the whole,
the quality of meat is rather
poor, the greater proportion sold
is lamb or mutton, with some
beef, and occasionally pieces of
very fat pork. This month the
meat ration has increased slight-
ly to one shilling and nine pence
(26c) person per week, but with
the further price increases the

. housewife either buys the cheap-

er cuts of meat or does not take
up all her ration,

Now, you may ask, if you
have used all your meat rations
for the week-end dinners, what
do you do for the other five or
six meals a week, plus extra
lunches, etc.? Unrationed offal
(heart, liver and kidney), can
sometimes be had at your butch-
er shop if you are lucky; in a
year I have had liver three times,
and heart and kidney each once.
The huge unrationed sausages
haye little meat or fatsin them
and are so adulterated’ with meal
ete., that they must be cooked
gently and slowly in lots of fat,

for a mouse’

Rabbit is extremely popular,
and is made into a variety of
dishes; chicken is so exorbit-
antly priced as to be out of the
reach of the working-class pock-
et, a five-pound chicken at
Christmas cost nearly $4.50.
Tripe and onions, a national dish,
requires a cultivated taste, and
all other unrationed meats such
as frankfurters, spiced meats
and hams, are very expensive.

Of the many kinds of fish, cod
and herring are cheapest.

The egg ration has never been
much more than one or two
eggs per person a week, although
there was one happy week when
we could buy as many eggs as
we wanted. The ‘mouse-trap”
cheese as it is commonly called,
has shrunk to the pitiful size of
four ounces a imonth, upon which
people say even a mouse would
starve,

Butter at three ounces per
week and margarine at four
ounces per week are barely ade-
quate, and it is expected these
rations will be further reduced.

In this tea-drinking nation,
the tea ration is by no means
ample, although there has re-
cently been a slight increase in
both quantity and price, giving
one-half pound one month, and
three-quarters. of a pound the
next month alternately. Sugar
at one-half pound a week will
just cover the necessities of
cooking and eating, with only an
extra .two pounds per person al-
lowed this year’s preserving pur-
poses. Bacon has become more
or less a luxury, and many peo-
ple buy part of it, or none at all.

Up until a year ago, milk was
rationed with two and one-half
pints a week for an adult, and
three and one-half pints a week
for achild. Today milk is un-
rationed but has jumped in price,
with subsidized milk prices ob-
tainable for children under five.
A free half-pint of milk is given
daily to all school children; who
may also purchase a hot ,dinner
at the school for a nominal sum.
This is a great help to the many
thousands of working mothers.
Free orange juice and cod liver
oil are obtainable for babies up-
on registration.

In cooperative guilds, house-
wives leagues, and other wo-
men’s organizations, women who
recognize that the present arms
program is a threat not only to
the peace of Britain but also the
main factor in the ever rising
cost of living, are ‘Working for
the cause of peace and a better
standard of living.

Only peace in Korea and Ma
laya, a drastic reduction in re
armament, and the opening of
the enormous available markets
for trade with China and tha
New Democracies, will give Brit
ain and her housewife a peaceful
and happy future,

TV to use Ca

Big time Canadian televis-
ion , via CBC, is due to open
in Toronto and Montreal a
few weeks from now. Last
week, two unnamed CBC-TV
officials put themselves on
the record to a Toronto news-
paper reporter on their objec-
tives. Said one:

“Our job is to create and
stimulate things Canadian.

nadian talent

We have a mandate to up-
hold, a responsibility to give
the Canadian people some-
thing a little better.”’

The second official said the
CBC’s first aim would be to
encourage Canadian program-
ming. ‘We don’t want to
smother native effort with
American imports,’ he was
quoted.

LJ

——!1949—

‘CANADA'S COST-OF-LIVING INDEX
1935-39=/00

1950

| posi eee

190-
185-
180-
1754
170-4

1654

160-

The much- vaunted “arop” in the Canadian cost-of-living index didn’t last long, aan a sharp
Chart above shows the Canadian index (heavy line) and the

upward trend is again evident,

United tSates consumers’ price index (dotted line),

The 14

to climb.

Since July 1 prices in Canada have continued

Your ot Devaifonent :

alt You Pleate.

Worth the money’.

P. M., Vancouver, B.C.: Am
enclosing herewith $3, the new
subscription rate for Our paper.
This increase in price should
have been made months ago.
The Yankee political trash mag-
azines, such as Collier’s, raised
prices some months back, and
our own political squab, Mac-
lean’s, is now 15 cents.

I don’t want to miss one copy
of the Pacific Tribune, and I
wish you every success from. ‘‘a
satisfied subscriber.”’

Criticizes Fast

K, C., Kimberley, B.C.: In
Howard Fast’s book, Spartacus,
he sets out to describe an event
of great importance in the his-
tory of the progress of mankind
toward a decent human society,
The attempt of the slaves of
Rome to destroy the system of
slavery and set up a life of free-
dom and brotherhood is an in-
spiration to all those who work
and fight for a better life in our
own times. (Fast sets himself a
great task and we must judge
his work by his achievements
and not let the obvious short-
comings seem greater than tHey
are,

The method of exposition
chosen is a difficult one, and

-must be used with great skill if

it is not to hide more than it
reveals, In presenting so many
points of view from so many
angles, there is real danger of
losing the broad general picture
in a mass.of interesting but dis-
tracting detail. The real object
of telling of Spartacus through
many characters who were in
contact with him at one time or
another is to paint a well-round-
ed portrait which would be dif-
ficult to do from one point of
view. This method, however,
has at times got out of hand, \so
that the Roman characters in
some cases are more fully and
clearly painted than is Spartacus
himself,

The man we really want and
need to know is the Spartacus
who organized a brotherhood of
free men and led them so suc-
cessfully as to almost overthrow
the greatest empire of ancient
times. How slaves who had not

Wie eee et GF eee ee

even heard the word ‘‘freedom”’
learned in a short time, under
conditions of difficulty and
danger, to cooperate in building
a new and free society, should
be the most important part of
this story. What is necessary to
know is the way in which they
achieved their aim of creating
a new and better society. Their
social, economic and political in-
stitutions and how they were
formed should be the main in-
terest of the writer, and yet this
side of the story is rarely men-
tioned.
;

The reason for this lack may \

be that Fast drew most of his
material from Roman sources,

because they are the most avail-—

able ones. However, it must be
possible to find adequate sources
somewhere to make it possible to
present a reasonably full de-

‘scription of the building of the

free society. There would be
little difficulty in creating suit-
able characters from among the
slaves to describe this from their
point of view, just as ‘the Ro-
mans are made to describe it
from theirs.

As the book is written, it is
an attempt to show a great man
of the people through the eyes
of degenerate people who hate
and fear him. . Of the great
movement of human beings
struggling forward on the path
of progress, and of the men and
women of high ideals and great
abilities who came forward to
lead the struggle, we see little.

The despairing ery of David
on the cross — ‘Spartacus, why
did we fail?” — this is the
question which sums up what
we all need to know, and Fast
does not answer it.

Questions for CCF

READER, Vancouver, B.C.:
Recently I wrote the CCF’ News
and directed these questions at
one of their writers on the Kor-
ean war:

Did Rhee’s party win in the
last election? Did Rhee arrest
and jail several of his elected
epponents? Did Dulles endorse
Rhee’s verbal attack on North
Korea, June 15, 1950? Is the
Asian war anything but a re-
volt against land monopoly and
foreign ‘interference? Did the

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 22, 1952 — PAGE £

«
United Nations endorse the Unit-
ed States navy interference at

Formosa? Is not the competit-:
ive profit motive of capitalism
the cause of all the present wars:
and chaos?

Donation for Clemens

A. B. D., Saanichton, B.C.: —
Please forward the enclosed
donation to the committee which
is taking funds for the Clarence
Clemens case. The Pacific Trib--
une did a good job in exposing
such sadism on the part of the
police. The rest is up to Chief
de ata

Save Greek seamen

D. GEORGIS, Vancouver, B.C.:
As representative of the Federa--
tion of Greek Maritime Unions, I
would like to bring to your at-
tention once more the cause of
the leaders of our federation.

For four years now the gen-
eral secretary, Tony Ambatielos,
and the secretary of the Marine’
Engineers Union, Basilio Beka-
kos, and seven other. leaders of
our federation have been im~-

prisoned in a concentration
camp.
In 1948, the Greek govern-

ment joined hands with ship-
owners and imposed martial] 1aw
and sentenced to death these’
leaders.

So far, protests from, the
trade union movement all over
the world have saved their lives’
but they are still in prison and
in concentration camps,

I might state that Tony Am-
batielos -was elected to parlia-
ment while still in prison, shoW-
ing clearly that he has the con
fidence of his fellow workers.

The government ordered a T@
trial to begin August 21 in 4
military court, On _ behalf of
our union I appeal to Canadian
unions and organizations to send
protests to the Greek goverD~
ment, addressed to Premier
Plastiras, Athens, Greece, 4é-
manding (1) That these men be
tried by a civil court, not 4°
military tribunal, (2) That they
be immediately released, pend-
ing any charges that the civil
authorities may level against
them.