PEACETIME CHALLENGES: WINNING THE PEACE
OVER the next few weeks there was a period of adjustment back into civilian and domestic life. My demob leave lasted until February 1947. Initially I spent most of the time with Helen an the family at home and making numerous visits to see relatives and friends, many of whom I had not seen in a long while.
All this was undertaken against the backdrop of one of the coldest winters on record, with freezing temperatures and snow that lasted for months.
Rationing was also quite extreme and there were shortages of almost everything. Coal was in very short supply and consequently so, too, was electricity. Food was scarce and making do was still very much the way most people were living day-to-day – but at least the fighting was over and we were grateful for our survival.
A feeling among many at this time was that winning the war against a repressive and brutal regime had been essential, although at an awful cost. But people now talked about ‘Winning the Peace’ and there was much to do.
In the mid-1930s I had started to think about the problems affecting working people and how to change things for the better. Why were there problems of unemployment poverty and hunger – and why were these problems not being solved?
Having served in the army for over five years it had given me, like so many other young men and women, opportunities to talk about these issues and develop a determination not to return to the bad times of the 1930s, but instead to work for a better world. Surely, now, in peacetime, things had to change?
In the future there should be no acceptance of unemployment or poverty, but a need to secure good working conditions, annual leave, sick pay and to tackle the many other issues that needed to be addressed.