This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.
The Daily Mirror echoes the "heart-cry" of the men in the Far East: "we want more BEER and CIGARETTES!" "One of the first jobs of the new parliament must be to overhaul the welfare arrangements for our men in the Far East," the paper complains; "In the heat of Burma and India, they are wondering if we have forgotten them." A Mrs. E.M.L. of Lincolnshire writes: "my son is in Burma ... they want cigarettes more than anything else. I had a letter from him this morning and he has only been able to buy twenty in the canteen this week." Mrs. L. of Cheshire's husband is only getting one bottle of beer per month - "in a climate so hot they perspire day and night."
The Manchester Guardian publishes a letter by ‘An Airman’s Wife’ complaining about an alleged inconsistency in the RAF's release system that is going to prove very controversial:
When the demobilisation and release scheme was first announced great prominence was given in the press and by the BBC to the fact that the scheme would apply equally to all and that apart from a limited number of Class B releases the date of a Service man’s release would be determined only by his age and length of service. Much less publicity has been given to the statement by the Air Ministry that it has decided to work on a release scheme of its own, in which an airman’s trade plays a very big part in arriving at the date of his return to civil life.
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