Bread-rationing may on the whole be working reasonably well. I
hope it is. But it is causing a lot of troubles about which not much has been heard. Ordinary tradesmen know their coupon-drill well enough by this time, and can usually be counted on to cut out what they should and not what they shouldn't. Bakers are not so schooled ; how should they be?' One housewife of my acquaintance found that a whole month's soap coupons had been removed. Since she had (as a matter of convenience) bought bread from two different bakers and cake from another, the voyage of recovery was arduous, and of course unsuccessful, all it brought to light being someone else's soap coupons which one baker had acquired without realising it. In another case all the bread units had been removed wholesale, without the holder's knowledge or desire. There must be tens of thousands of such cases. It is not the bakers' fault, but a great deal of it could be avoided if the Food Ministry issued special bread-cards instead of bringing ambiguous pages of the ration-book into use.
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