BR TO MINISTRY OF FOOD, UK / JOHN STRACHEY, 9 OCT. 1947
BRACERS 3208. TL(CAR). McMaster
Proofread by K. Blackwell

October 9 1947

Dear Strachey,

Like many other people, I am weary of the insolence of minor government employees. Is there no way of improving the standard of behaviour in Food Offices.

Last week our cook lost my ration book. My wife took the enclosed form to the nearest Post Office to have her signature witnessed by the Postmaster. She was told that if she signed the form not in the presence of the Postmaster it would then be taken to the Postmaster for signature, but only if I first signed the form correctly, for, as the clerk explained, I apparently did not know how to sign a form and had only put “Russell”. My wife then obtained the signature as witness of the first literate and responsible person she met, and took the form to the Food Office. There she was told

a. that my signature was incomplete.1
b. that it was in the wrong place on the form.
c. that my signature and not hers, according to the form, should be witnessed.
d. that only in the case of an adult signing on behalf of a child should the signature be written where she, with a post office pen, had written hers.
e. that I can only eat and therefore can only live (implied) after this week if I admit that I am illiterate, declare that paragraph D of the enclosed form means what it obviously does not mean, and agree to accept the reading of the said paragrapha said to be correct by a young woman in the Marylebone Food Office.

Because I feel strongly that this sort of petty tyranny adds intolerably to the burdens of the people of this country I am sending you the form and asking you yourself to be so good as to let me know whether it is correctly filled in or not.

If the form is correctly filled in except that a restaurant manager is not a responsible person within the meaning of the act I should like very much to fill in a duplicate and ask you to witness it yourself. My wife could bring it to your office for this purpose.

We should like to see you both socially but have felt that, like so many old friends, you are too busy and too important to waste time on the likes of us.

Yours sincerely,

• 1

  my signature was incomplete “Russell” was the legal signature of the Earls Russell.

Textual Notes

• a

  paragraph misspelt as pragraph