Sandy M’Snob the shoemaker confides to Barrowsgate his plan to foil his wife’s attempt to use his clothes ration for her own clothes but she was outside the door, listening.
Context: During the war, the British government needed to reduce production and consumption of civilian clothes to safeguard raw materials and release workers and factory space for war production. The imposition of clothes rationing was announced by Oliver Lyttleton, President of the Board of Trade, on 1 June 1941.