Australian troops returning to Australia from the Middle East in 1942 stopped in Ceylon while Churchill and Curtin argued over their final destination, Burma or Australia. From letters from home, they knew tea was in short supply and stocked up. One soldier in a battalion history is reported to have dumped the contents of his kit bag overboard and filled it with tea when re-embarking, making a tidy profit upon retuning home.
On the contrary, in New Zealand many farms were left with unharvested crops, unshorn sheep and unmilked cows due to a manpower shortage, with a surplus of most produce.. Some battalions had to be prematurely demobbed to provide manpower for home production.
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19-04-06, 16:11
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