Timber

Mrs. Marjorie Chamberlain of Purley, near London, had a nanny goat named Gertie and two kids named Snitch and Snatch. She also had a one-eyed, champion egg-laying duck named Belinda, and a Derby racing car. All these chattels needed housing.

She decided to build a goathouse first. But Mrs. Chamberlain reckoned without the small, slow grinding of the bureaucratic mills. Her application for a timber license bounced back & forth for 13 weeks, among six different government agencies. Baffled and angry, Mrs. Chamberlain wrote to the newspapers. Last week her story rang across all England.

In the House of Commons, Richard Hurd, Conservative M.P. for the Newbury division of Berkshire, heckled Labor Works Minister Charles W. Key about the delay in granting Mrs. Chamberlain's permits "in connection with essential food production." "Is the Minister aware," asked Hurd, who quite understandably had got confused about the timing of events, "that while this tomfoolery has been going on [opposition cheers], this goat has produced two kids? . . ."

Replied Minister Key: "If the application had asked for a home for Snitch and Snatch ... I could have considered it, but when the application includes a home for Belinda the one-eyed duck, as well as the provision of a garage ... I think it is another matter."

But publicity had stirred Key's subordinates into action. Next day, permits in hand, Mrs. Chamberlain placed an order for the goathouse.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.