Lost Letters - and J B Priestley

 After a flurry of letters in the middle of June, the letters between 26th June and 5th July are missing.  Rather than leave people following the story with nothing to read, I thought that it would be interesting to have a glimpse of what life was like in 1942 from a different voice.

The writer, J. B. Priestley, made a series of regular broadcasts on the BBC to the people of Britain during the war.  Between April 1940 and 1943 he also made broadcasts directed at the USA and the Commonwealth, to rally these countries to Britain's cause.  The text of some of these broadcasts has been gathered together in the book "Britain Speaks: J. B. Priestley takes on the Nazi war machine" by Austin Mitchell.  

The following is taken from the broadcast of 18 June, 1942.  Priestley is speaking specifically to the USA, trying to explain what daily life is like for the British people during the war, as there appears to be a perception in the USA that things in Britain 'aren't too bad'.  He speaks of the blackout, rationing of food and clothing, the difficulties of travel and finishes by explaining how the British people are paying for the cost of the war.

Speaking of food rationing, he says:

"Now, I'm not a poor man, and - as you can guess from my appearance or even perhaps from my voice - I am a man who enjoys a good dinner, so you may bet your boots that I am going to take my share of any decent food that's going.  Now, I have had just one small piece of steak, about three inches square, in the last twelve months.  I have not had a single lamb or mutton chop.  I don't think I've had even one square inch of fried ham.  In normal times, I eat plenty of fruit, but now, of course, there just isn't any fruit.  We give our oranges to our children.  I haven't tasted an orange for over a year.  Cream vanished long ago ......  We aren't hungry, and we're all pretty healthy, but except on a few special occasions dining is no longer much of a pleasure."

Priestley moves on to talk about how meeting to cost of the war is affecting people:

"Finally, I must ask you to remember what we are paying for this war.  Nearly all the workers in the factories are now having to pay income tax for the first time in their lives, and in addition our indirect taxation - such as duties on sugar, tobacco, liquor, and the heavy purchase taxes on goods of all kinds - is very high indeed.  The combined income and surtax on larger incomes has reached a truly fantastic proportion.  I am no millionaire, but I lived very comfortably before the war. Now - it would be quite impossible for me to live at that rate now - even apart from rationing and all the other restrictions - simply because it would be quite impossible for me to earn enough money to leave me enough, after paying taxes, to live at that rate.  I couldn't do it even if I earned a million dollars a year.  The tax on really large incomes goes up to 97 per cent.  Nobody can have more than about 25,000 dollars* a year to spend because whatever the rest may be, it is taken in taxation."

* At this point, there were about four dollars to the pound, so $25,000 would be about £6,500.

Reading this may help us to appreciate why Stan and Grace seem to have an ongoing obsession with food, although the high levels of taxation would be unlikely to affect either of them very much!