The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-09-19

oui-the vucunt spaces nov
used os parking lots-the prin
cipol ddnuge Ii spread her,
and there In small sections al
over the city.
You set a shock as you gc
down almost any street, to note
q sudden. great cash in the face
of the buildings hole in the
facade Of the thoroughfare. There
u stands. empty and desolate
the interiors of rooms Gaping
out into the street. weeds anc
wild flowers growing in the de-
brts that fills what was the base
ment. II may be a church, with
us roof caved In. the steel girders
twisted and broken sticking up
into the sky. or II may be an
apartment or office building, now
partly occupied. the usable sec
ton still standing Clipped and
pockmarked from the blast.
Other structures are framed in
outside steelwork 10 hold them
together. and some are padlocked
rs unsafe.
The cleanup has been amazing
considering the extent of the
damage. but reconstruction and
restoration are held up for scar
city of building materials.
The Briton takes il" without
APPARENTLY noticing it-not light
lyand not grimly. though he re-
calls the terror of those days. And
although Nazi bombs have des-
troyed much OF what he has low
ed and cherished. strangely
enough the Londoner seems to
bear no hatred tword the Ger
mans.
Perhaps it's because" a Lon
don importer told me at tea this
Afternoon. EVE have so much TO
do"
u mas been said for years
both here and aborad-that the
British are most splendid and
glorious when they are lin the
pinches." They are In such a po-
sition now. They are grim about
it-as they look toward another
Fuel Crisis this winter. and a
Food Crisis before that.
The newspapers. magazines
and the comedians in the musical
shows are oil inclined to blame
u all on the Labor government,
bat a careful study of notes TAX
en- IN hundreds of conversations
with the people in all walks of
life suggests that in general the
people favor the Labor party,
though they think Mr.. Attlee's
government has made some SER
ioIH mistakes. Mistakes which,
one conservative admitted, might
well have been made by Church
IFS Coalition il il had been kept
In power. The times have a lot
% do with IT," he said.
There Is a terrific shortage of
dollars In Britain. and the money
loaned by the United States is
very nearly all used up in Amer
lean markets-food Especially
building materials. machinery
Britain needs dollars. Money she
has loaned 10 countries in the
So-called sterling bloc has in
many cases been converted into
dollars. which puts a further
strain on Britain.
So she Is exporting all that she
can. 90 obtain more American
dollars to obtain her way up
again. This means that the people
must stand by TO watch all kinds
Of goods which they themselves
seriously need-autumobiles. ma
chinery. textiles. even whiskey-
SHIPPED abroad.
u hurts. but they have it stol-
idly because we HAVE to do il
90 survive" They don't like the
food fations-''the ration for one
person per month would not COW
81 your teacup saucer-one egg
q month, half a pound Of meat a
week"
And they don't like the cloth
ing ration. A businessman who
fels that he must be decent to
meet the trade" finds it hard to
obtain the clothing he needs for
lack Of coupons. II he buys
clothes for himself, the rest OF
his family must go without.
There Is. accordingly, a black
market in coupons-sold by
'shiftless people who always
wear old clothes anyway"-and
a pound (s403 in our money!
viii buy one persons clothing
ration.
Britain's situation becomes all
the more grim with the falling
off of production in the coal
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