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Show cut hugely arid subways stop running run-ning not later than midnight and most busses by 10:30 p. m. or earlier. ear-lier. Normal rates are cheaper on the average than in New York, but at night, when cabs are very scarce and elderly drivers are taking all sorts of chances in the blackout, it 'is an unwritten rule that the patron gives about twice the fare. Mild entertainment requires much j shelling out A single seat in an ordinary or-dinary first-run movie will run up to $2.50. Against all these facts are these: A major's living allowance, or per diem, is $6 a day. It is $5 for captain, cap-tain, and so on down. Officers say that nearly all of them must dig deeply into their pay which is modest, running to about $265 a month in the case of a second lieutenant maintaining a wife and home in America to live on even, the minimum scale. Then there are the demands of insurance, war bonds and the like. Budget Plagues I Yanks in London LONDON. Budget troubles as sharp as those of any worried American Amer-ican housewife back home worry desk and staff officers who operate the great headquarters of the American Amer-ican drive in the European theater. Through no one's fault, but by the impact of an immense effort drawing men here from around the world, this city staid and gracious old London has to its astonishment taken on some of the qualities of an oil boom town back home. Living, despite the long and mainly main-ly successful British effort to keep prices from getting out of hand, is a . tremendously expensive business for 'the American officer and particularly particular-ly the junior officer. They don't talk much about it and whatever complaints they have are mild and Reluctant, but the fact is that from major on down they have to exercise a degree of thrift which they doubt is equaled by that of American officers anywhere else in the world. It is true that the post exchanges have very low prices on what they sell for example, American cigarettes ciga-rettes at 10 cents a package. Popular British cigarettes cost about 50 cents. Eating outside the officers' mess (the meals there are good, ample and inexpensive but an officer can't always get there by reason of inaccessibility in-accessibility or being tied up on assignment) as-signment) is a highly expensive business. Dinner Costs $4. Dinner for one in an acceptable place for one pound the current equivalent of $4.04 is considered not at all unreasonable and to this must be added a tip, which by British custom cus-tom runs to about two shillings, or 40 cents, for each person served. This is of course exclusive of anything any-thing like a cocktail or wine which really run high. By British regulation there is a 'five shilling, or, one dollar, legal limit on the price of a meal, but this does not mean much in the face of extra charges for coffee, sal- ad, "service" and so forth. Prices for items which the government gov-ernment deems not essential and thus not covered by any legal price ceiling climb to rather astonishing altitudes. For example, one might be asked $4.20 for a single cante-loupe, cante-loupe, or more than a dollar for a Single peach. But even on the essentials a great deal of scratching around must be done to get by. Suitable quarters for an officer living liv-ing alone can hardly be found for less than $5 a day; an officer sharing shar-ing an apartment with other officers offi-cers can manage on about $3 a day, but not much less. Then There's Taxi Fares. Another absolute essential here is an occasional taxi London is spread |