War on the Billet-Snatchers
The problem of billeting in the reception-areas has been with us since the beginning of the war, but it has become far more acute in recent months. A special correspondent of The Times, who has been visiting some of the crowded country towns, shows how much the position has been aggravated by irresponsible refugees who have dug themselves in at hotels and boarding-houses to the exclusion of other visitors, however important their business may be. The correspondent reports on a fact which thousands of others must have observed for themselves: that there exists an undesirable class of well-to-do people who hasten to remove themselves from any area at the first hint of danger, and secure points of vantage in safer areas and stay there as permanent visitors. Travellers engaged on essential war work or other important business are put to extreme inconvenience through the difficulty of finding sleeping accommodation. But it is not, of course, only the drones who are responsible for the congestion. There is competition for billets between the military authorities, Government Depart- ments, local authorities, private businesses, official and unofficial evacuees, and success in finding them often depends on luck or acquisitiveness rather than the urgency of the need. It is time that the whole question of billeting was taken in hand and dealt with systematically, so as to ensure lodgings for key men in the suitable places, and priority based on the necessities of each case.
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