BLAKE             We’ve had it pretty tough as well, you know. Drafted from college back in the States, training camp, two weeks of hell on a rickety steamer crossing the Atlantic, throwing your guts up day and night, not knowing when a torpedo might hit and send you to the bottom. And now sleeping seven to a tent, knee-deep in English mud. 

BETH                He doesn’t look at it that way though, Blake. All he sees is brash young men who can’t march properly, with no discipline, talking big and throwing their money around like there’s no tomorrow. In his mind you’re all soft. 

BLAKE             That’s not fair! 

BETH                I know that, but he doesn’t. “What use are they going to be in a battle?” he says, “They’ll most likely turn and run away like startled rabbits at the first sight of a Gerry machine gun!” 

BLAKE             Just like your guys did at Dunkirk, eh? 

BETH                Blake! 

BLAKE             Sorry Betty, but it’s pretty hard when people will only see one side of things. 

BETH                I know, but he’s not going to change, and he hates the thought of Yank soldiers ‘stealing’ our women while our boys are stuck away from home, risking their lives day after day. 

BLAKE             But I wouldn’t be stealing you, would I Betty? It’s not as if you’ve got a husband or boyfriend over there in France, worrying about you. 

BETH                I haven’t, Blake, but lots of other girls have. Jill Brown next door but one, her fiance’s fighting in Belgium, and she came strolling into the pub arm in arm with a GI last Friday night. You should have heard the names some of the neighbours were calling her. Fred the landlord wouldn’t have served her, but he was afraid it might cause a fight. 

BLAKE             You can’t blame her though, can you? After all, she doesn’t even know if her guy will ever come home again. 

BETH                That’s not the point though, is it Blake? We used to be such a close-knit community, everybody helping each other out. Now it seems almost as if you Yanks have driven us apart.   

BLAKE             But what about all the things we’ve given you? Free lipsticks, perfume, nylons, chocolate, gum, things you could only dream about before.     

BETH                I know Blake, and most people really are grateful. Especially the girls - after months of smearing gravy browning all over your legs it’s a real joy to have a proper pair of nylons to wear to go out in. It’s fine for the youngsters, but the older people think it’s just bribery to get what you want. 

BLAKE             Well I sure didn’t hear any of them complaining when they took us in for Christmas dinner last month. Seems to me they were only too happy to tuck into our ham and our tinned fruit, then drink our whisky and smoke our cigars afterwards. 

BETH                Don’t you understand, Blake? Most of them probably haven’t seen proper fruit or a cigar for two years. It’s natural they’d want to take advantage. 

BLAKE             All I’m saying is you can’t have it both ways, Betty. You can’t take all our gifts with one hand and slap us in the face with the other.