He had heard that many British women were working because of the high cost of cigarettes, the Rev. Dr. Sidney M. Berry, assistant secretary of the International Congregational Council, said today.
Cigarettes cost about 3/8 for 20, and many husbands could not afford to buy them for their wives.
Dr. Berry Is visiting Melbourne in the course of a world tour to draw Congregational churches into closer association.
High prices — and the fact that working-class British families during the war became used to little luxuries — had led many women to stay in their jobs, he said.
Britain's churches had been denuded by the war, and only now were beginning to recover. Populations had been shifted, and nearly everyone had been called on to do war service.
Firewatchers, wardens and other voluntary workers had practised on Sundays, and the churches had been emptied. "It's a long process, re-educating them, and we're having to start from scratch with the younger generation," Dr. Berry said.
The present trend in trades unions in England was to eliminate gradually all extreme elements, and this was quietly being accomplished. Only a few unions still were ruled by reds. Dr. Berry was a member of the first committee for a United Europe, formed by Mr Churchill. "In my European tours I found general appreciation of Marshall Aid and a true understanding of its aims," he said.
He has visited all Australian States since he arrived at the end of February and will leave for England on June 9.