Grim

It was bitter economic war that Great Britain was waging against Germany last week, as Sir John Simon made clear in his budget message (see p. 24). That Germany would fight back as ruthlessly was made equally clear when blockade-scared Berlin announced that armed merchantmen would be sunk without warning (see p. 34). There was good reason for Germany's retaliatory step, because Britain had already made gains in its economic offensive. Life in Germany was becoming increasingly grim. Items:

P:Food was scarce and hard to get. The average German was nearly always hungry, if he lived on his rations. If he went to a restaurant, he found it crowded and stifling, the shuttered windows keeping out the fresh air. Pork, veal and beef seldom appeared on the menus, but there was plenty of venison, wild pig and wildfowl. Shot on estates and in forests, they would not provide an inexhaustible food supply. These dishes were expensive, but the diner had to take them or else get nothing at all.

P:Housewives had to spend hours daily standing in line for supplies. It was no longer possible to entertain at meals, unless the guests brought their own food. At Berlin's big Kurfurstendamm sidewalk cafes, a few brave souls occasionally sat in the dark with their beer, but most Berliners spent their evenings at home, trying to read by carefully shaded lights.

P:Cleanly Germans had to get along with one cake of soap a month, and men had to make a tube of shaving cream last five months. Beards began to appear and the Hitler Girls passed resolutions not to refuse to kiss bearded men.

P:Income taxes were up 50%, the tax on tobacco up 20%, the beer tax up 14%. It was against the law to ask for a raise in salary or to demand extra pay for overtime. Every able-bodied resident of a German city was required to help pile up sandbags and to assist in building air-raid cellars.

P: In the darkness of Berlin's streets women were mishandled. But prostitutes complained that their business was ruined because of the darkness and shortage of men (see col. 2).

P:Radio stations no longer sent out organized programs, but confined themselves to bulletins, warnings, pep talks and propaganda, interspersed with military marches and recordings of classical music.

P:Newspapers were down to half-size and all printed the same news. This consisted of: 1) official bulletins, 2) foreign press comments from friendly countries, and 3) polemics against the English. The enemy was never referred to as Great Britain or the British Empire, but simply as England. France was seldom mentioned.

P:lothing was rationed as well as food. Men were allowed two suits, four shirts and six pairs of socks, and to get new ones they had to prove that the old ones were worn out.

P:Jews were frightened. But having been deprived of all their valuable possessions, they now grimly waited for the same thing to happen to the rest of the Germans.

P:The German people were silent and sad. There was no enthusiasm for the war and little desire to talk about it. But the crisis had brought them closer together. On the streets and in public places they showed one another the courtesy of unhappy people who know that others are unhappy too.

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