Great chunks of the British Empire seethed last week in the cauldron of world unrest. While mutiny and riot sizzled and popped through India, Egypt, Palestine and Jamaica, Britons discussed in querulous tones the propriety of General Sir Thomas Riddell-Webster's extra shirt.
The London Evening News quoted the retiring Quartermaster General's delight at the civilian kit issued him on demobilization—"a suit, a raincoat, two shirts, one pair of socks, two collars, a tie and a pair of shoes." In clothes-short Britain, such an outfit would take more than a year's ration points....