A Trail of Bran
Snt.—This episode, which illustrates some of the hazards of life in the Welfare State, may be of interest to you.
My wife has suffered from arthritis for many years, and we have just got a new doctor who is most anxious that she should use bran pecks, and was most insistent that it should be bran and nothing else. I there- fore set off to the corn merchant, armed with a prescription, and asked for 5 lb. of bran, and was told that I could not have it without a chit from the Food Office. I said that 1 had a perfectly good prescription, but the corn merchant rightly pointed out that he was not a chemist and did hot dispense prescriptions. I thereupon went to Wandsworth Food Office, and, after a brief interval, was told that they did not deal in bran, but it was suggested that 1 might apply to Welfare Foods. I repaired there, and. after being shown a wonderful collection of foods, was told that bran was not amongst them ; they thought, however, that I might get my bran from the Trades Food Section in some other road nearby. There I sat patiently for thirty-five minutes, and eventually a very charming young lady came out and pointed out that under no circumstances would she be able to give me bran, but I could apply to the Animal Feeding Stuffs in Stanmore, Middlesex. This was almost too much, because all I wanted was a chit from any member of the Food Office, and my corn merchant would have been delighted to have supplied the 5 lb. of bran, costing under one shilling. She pointed out very kindly that had my wife been a rabbit instead, I could have had it quite easily. I said that I regretted that I could not effect such a miraculous transposition.
However, I decided not to go to Stanmore, but to ring up the Ministry of Health instead. They said that, although undoubtedly I had a prescription, it was a matter for the Ministry of Food, not the Ministry of Health. They suggested that I might 'phone a certain official at the Ministry of Food, which I did. He was most interested in my tale of woe, and said that he would have been glad to help me had I wanted a truck-load or 1.000 tons, but he did not deal in any smaller quantities. I said I could not manage with a truck-load, as I had nowhere to put it, and all I wanted was-5 lb. Eventually, however, he look pity on me and sent a little note to my corn merchant so that in these special circumstances I might have 5 lb. of bran, for which I duly paid 101d. The search cost me 31 hours of my time and quite a bit of petrol. I managed to avoid the loss of my temper, and kept quite peaceful and happy throughout.—Yours sincerely, D.J.
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