The Holiday Problem
The end has just been reached of the first full post-war holiday period which, ideally, covers the six months from mid-April to mid-October. In fact, as the past season has painfully demonstrated, the ideal is no nearer attainment than it was ten years ago when there were many millions fewer benefiting from the effects of holiday with pay and when much more accommodation was available. Now, with the problem intensified tenfold, August remains the traditional month for a holiday and the chaos arising from a inadequate supply coping with an out-size demand brought in its train the usual evils— profiteering, queues, rocketing prices and, for many, misery in place of rest and enjoyment. We are faced, in short, with a social problem of some importance. Obviously holidays with pay lose value if the people most in need of them have the dual problem of inability to pay the inflated prices and inability to find appropriate accommoda- tion. This dilemma particularly applies to the family man with young children—by far the most deserving cases. Clearly, on a long-term view, vastly more accommodation must be provided. In the interim makeshift measures must be put into force. Staggering of holidays presents obvious difficulties—but they can and must be overcome. But that in itself is not enough. It must become the business of the government, by transferring existing camps in appro- priate districts, by requisitioning large, empty country houses which have served their pupose, by expanding the scope of " wake " weeks, by the control of prices and by the postponement of the August Bank Holiday till later in the year, to deal with the problem.
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