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.
"Family men with the BAOR who are shopping early for Christmas are coming up against some unexpected snags," warns the Daily Mirror:
Presents - which they are sending home to be hidden in a cupboard till Christmas Eve - are becoming a source of worry to their wives, because many of the soldiers don't realise that high duty must be paid on some articles ...
Captain G.B. was alarmed at what happened to the gift he sent for his son. He tells the story and asks for help:
"I bought a camera from another officer who paid £2 - £4 for it new. As it was secondhand when I got it I gave the value for customs purposes at £2, which was surely reasonable. I sent the parcel home complete with a duty-free label. We are allowed six labels a year. When the parcel reached England my wife was told she would have to pay £14 duty, plus purchase tax ..."
The Mirror also reports on the red-tape troubles ex-servicemen are having establishing small businesses, sometimes because of misapplied regulations. A recently demobbed soldier who took boot repairing classes under the Army Education Scheme attempted to set himself up as a cobbler in Nottingham, only to be told by the local Board of Trade Footwear Repair Department that he was ineligible for a license because he had not been in business on his own account before the war. But apparently he was misinformed: he is eligible for a license, so long as he takes work with an existing cobbler for between six and fifteen months first.
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