• Hats advert, May 1918.

From our own correspondent: In this, our final edition for 1917, a brief review of the course of the chief local industry for the current year will be appropriate. Although the country has been involved in war of unprecedented proportions, the ladies' hat trade has persisted with unabated energy.

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: December 29th, 1917.

John Coote, a discharged soldier now a tram driver, of 77 Church Street, Luton, was summoned at the Borough Court this morning for failing to extinguish the lights on a tramcar after an air raid warning on December 18th. He was fined £1.

Pc Biley said the defendant was driving the tram in High Town Road with the lights on. The air raid siren had been blown, and he asked the defendant to put out the lights. Defendant put them out and then put them on again.

• The 1916 Biscot Pierrot troupe who followed in Vic Weldon's entertaining footsteps.

Vic M. Weldon, who described himself as one of the original Biscoteers group of 'Magical Entertainers,' had been out East for over a year and had been lying wounded in the St Andrew's Hospital in Malta before he wrote a letter to The Luton News that was published on December 27th, 1917. He says:

Excelsior! The title of a Luton Food Committee report is used not merely in exultation over the vindication of the rights of the Press, but because the Committee has now the power, and has resolved to use it, of controlling the supplies of butter and margarine. The scheme was succinctly explained by the Executive Officer and the Chairman, and was unanimously adopted by the Committee.

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, December 27th, 1917.

Christmas railway traffic was this year very heavy, due to the exodus of workpeople who have come to Luton works during the past year or two. Saturday was exceptionally busy day, and Mr Grice and his staff at the Midland Station and Mr Few and his staff at the Great Northern Railway had quite a rush of bookings.

Pte J. Ashton Knight, Royal Army Medical Corps, son of Mr James Knight, of Birchington House, Dunstable, sends a very interesting account of recent experiences in Palestine. Pte Knight, who is a chemist by profession, underwent his military training in the Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance at Luton. In the course of his letter Pte Knight says:

We wish we could be sure that the hundreds of people now daily to be seen standing in the queues outside margarine and provision shops had it honour bound themselves to observe the voluntary rationing scheme put forward by the Director of Food Economy. On all hands one hears suggestions that people are using the queues to secure more than their fair share of the necessaries available.

Food - or rather the lack of it - had become the predominant issue in Luton as Christmas 1917 approached. Shipping losses to German submarines and the food requirements of the military were part of the cause, but there was also growing anger among shoppers who wanted compulsory rationing in the interests of fairness.

Letters had previously appeared revealing how favoured - probably moneyed - customers at shops were obtaining all the supplies they wanted, while other shoppers went totally without after queuing for hours.

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: December 22nd, 1917.

As the Great War dragged on, food supplies in Luton and elsewhere were reaching crisis point. Shoppers queued for hours, often for little or no supplies of essential commodities, and Luton's controversial Food Committee - made up most of food suppliers - insisted on meeting behind closed doors.

On December 22nd, 1917, the Beds & Herts Saturday published a stark message under the heading of 'Don't buy greedily'. The article read:

Digest of stories from The Luton News: Thursday, December 20th, 1917.

[Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: December 15th, 1917]

We have received a most interesting letter from Pte W. Lansdowne, who before the war resided in this district and who is now serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Italy. He describes his experiences in, and his impressions of that land, and the work of his vivid pen, interpreting the feelings of an artistic soul, makes pleasant reading.

What was described as a test case of considerable importance to commercial travellers was brought before Luton Borough Sessions on Saturday [December 15th, 1917] under the Motor Spirit Restriction Order, Chief Constable Mr Charles Griffin remarking that, like most of the Orders made under the Defence of the Realm regulations, it was a miserably worded thing for the reason that it left so many interpretations to be made and a decision of the Bench was the only interpretation that could be relied upon.

Digest of stories from the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: December 15th, 1917.

• An orderly food queue in Wellington Street during WW1, but still with a police presence.

The queue trouble has become a real police matter, and, unless the Food Controller takes the situation in hand, it looks like developing into a very serious matter.

Mr Arthur Kent, of 59 Hazelbury Crescent, Luton, has just heard from his daughter Ethel and son-in-law Jesse William Funge, who are at present in Russia. Mr Funge was formerly employed at Luton Hoo until, with his wife, he entered the service of Prince Bibescu, of Roumania - he as a gardener, and Mrs Funge to take charge of the Princess's Persian cats.