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's editorial page reflects on six months of peace:
Somehow peace does not seem to have come. Those of us who have been at home have of course got used to the social asperities of everyday life which war conditions produced, but men and women coming out of the Forces after several years' absence abroad appear to be depressed at the atmosphere in which they find themselves. Setting out gaily to make a few purchases, they soon come up against not merely the absence of the goods they want, but of a frigid, half-contemptuous manner on the part of exponents of the eternal 'no!' This makes the returned warrior wonder what has become of the warm-hearted Britain he used to know ...It is not only in shops that this authoritarian attitude persists. The same sort of thing is to be found in trains and buses, restaurants, places of amusement and in any circumstances where one set of people want something and another set of people have to cater for their needs. 'Don't you know there is a war on?' was a persistent and irritating question which, thank goodness, can no longer be put. Unfortunately, there are many people who don't seem to be aware that there is a peace on. Can we not get back to the standard of politeness, kindness, and friendly collaboration which obtained in the past?
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