COOK-HOUSES AND COMFORT
Sut,—The public concern over the failure of the recruiting drive for the Services has led to a good deal of interest in the living conditions of the men. Speaking as an A.C.2 in the R.A.F., I should like to make a suggestion. In my view permanent sleeping quarters, with a separate room for each man with his own bedside table and lamp, would cost the Government a lot of money to no purpose. These things would be wasted on most servicemen. The small percentage who stay in the billet during winter evenings do so to sit around the stove and talk and smoke. In the summer they are to be found on the grass outside, doing the same thing. For those who want to read or study, most stations have very good NAA.F.I. reading rooms.
I think the authorities would be better advised (a) to make a 25 per cent. increase in the allocation of money spent on food, so that better quality materials are bought ; and (b) to set up a comprehensive scheme vastly to improve the organisation and general atmosphere of cook-houses. I suggest that a committee be set up with representatives from the three Services (not necessarily restricted to catering trades), a N.A.A.F.I. official, a Treasury representative and two first-class civilian chefs. These last two should each be put in charge of a cook-house, one large and the other small. The results and increased costs should be considered by the com- mittee. If results were good (and I think there is little doubt that they would be) the committee should be responsible for showing them not only to cook-house chiefs but to every camp C.O. in the country. This, admittedly, would be no easy matter to organise. But I have come to the conclusion that it is only where the cook-house staff does its job with good materials, with efficiency and imagination, that healthy and happy Servicemen are to be found. A fundamental reform in this direction would be worth a great deal of soft light glowing from bedside lamps.—
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