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Bitter medicine was in store for the bitterly stoical Britons. Fuel rationing seemed a must from now on. Sufficient reserve stocks for next winter could not be built up without giving industry less than its full requirements. That meant that goods for domestic use would have to be cut. Some economists talked in terms of three more years of scarcity.
Almost every Briton now knew that his nation was very, very sick and that recovery would be slow and painful.
In Hampstead a bank clerk expressed the thoughts of thousands : "If I'd known about this, I would have cleared out last year. South Africa or Australia for me."
*Britain did not suffer alone: northern Europe was also caught between intense cold and coal shortages. The Netherlands closed its schools. In orderly Copenhagen a mob attacked a coal train. Berlin counted 150 deaths from cold and hunger in recent weeks. Eire and Northern Ireland felt the pinch of Britain's troubles; several industries closed, and domestic gas supplies were cut.
*The docker had distinguished company in his assertion. Last week George Bernard Shaw came up with a belated version of Franklin Roosevelt's abandoned Passamaquoddy project of 1935. G.B.S. proposed harnessing the swirling tides in Scotland's narrow inlets to avert future crises. He added a petulant note: "My suggestions usually take 30 years to attract any attention."
*For news of what The Crisis did to some of Britain's ancient & honorable magazines, see PRESS.