TOBACCO FOR TROOPS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 259, 17 January 1941, Page 5

TOBACCO FOR TROOPS

DUTIES PAYABLE IN EGYPT POSITION EXPLAINED The secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, Mr G. A, Hayden,, says that misapprehension still exists regarding the sending of to-< bacco and cigarettes to the Ne\A< Zealand fighting forces abroad. The difficulty appears to be due to New Zealanders not being in the same war theatres, and different conditions apply to the payment of customs duty as between the United Kingdom and Egypt. Tobacco and cigarettes included in individual parcels toi Great Britain are not subject to duty, but parcels to Egypt are. Tobacco goods included in parcels to Canada are admitted duty free up to certain limits. In consequence of the position in Egypt, said Mr Havden, arrangements were made in accordance with a concession granted by the Egyptian Government for tiro inclusion of cigarettes and tobacco in unaddressed parcels forwarded through the board.

Mr Hay den afco dealt with the question of why cigarettes and tobacco consigned from New Zealand by the board to the New Zealand Forces Club in Cairo are not to be distributed free. For one thing, the cost was too heavy for the fund t/o maintain, also many men did not smoke,, and something would have to be given to them.