THE ARMY SMOKES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 178, 10 November 1941, Page 5

THE ARMY SMOKES

PAY DAY POPULAR

THURSDAY CIGARETTE, DAY

Two days stand out in every w r eek of a soldier's life. They are Thursday and Friday. The importance of Friday is self-apparent. For Friday in the Army is in one main respect similar to Friday in the old civilian days: it is pay-day.

Thursday brings largesse of a different nature. It brings fifty very welcome cigarettes, and at a time of the week when tobacco in any shape is worth its Aveight in gold. These issue cigarettes lay no claims to noble derivation. Some of them may accidentally have come from Virginia, but such interlopers are in a definite minority. The rest are just "fags" or "smokes" and as such act as a timely tide-over till Friday brings the necessary cash to indulge in something better. Nevertheless there are many soldiers of thrifty habits, who, without apparent physical or mental discomfort, manage to make the Army issue fulfill all their smoking requirements. These strong-willed people are an object of persistent wonder and speculation as to' their ultimate powers of endurance and even jjotential longevity. In the "good old days," when the first contingent was alone in all its Oriental glory, the cigarette issue was a real pleasure to receive. Brands of recognised quality w r ere regularly distributed—well known brands for which soldiers had been accustomed to pay 7d for ten before' September, 1939. That happy state, however, did not last.

First of a long line of "throatburners" was a much maligned brand, officially known and labelled as "R.A.F." but generally and very aptly termed "Spitfires." These were gradually alternated with those old campaigners—"Woodbine," which, in fact, eventually took their place. The change was welcome. Even when colourful cartons bearing popuidar English trade marks made their appearance there was little disgruntlement when it was discovered that they contained only Woodbines after all, with a polite little note inside explaining the why and wherefore of the apparent deception.

For a long time Woodbines held the field till they were ultimately replaced by two new brands—"Honey dew" and "Viceroy." Some of the more literary-minded immediately nicknamed the former "Kubla Khan" remembering Coleridge's imaginative linesc "For he on honeydew hath fed and drunk the milk of Paradise." Needless to say, the comparison was merely literary. Despite occasional distribution of "Flag":—well known to soldiers of the last war —"Viceroy," "Honeydew" and "Woodbine" are still the mainstay of the cigarette issue.

Members of tlie> first N.Z.E.F. will still have poignant memories of the cigarette l issue of those other campaigning days. Names like "Red Hussars/' "De Ore," "Arf a MO," "Ocean Spray," "Smith's Studio," and dozens more, will easily be recalled. They might not have been the best that money could buy, but there wen: many times when half an issue cigarette was a priceless treasure, to be

husbanded carefully and smoked with such caution that not one inhalation was wasted. In this respect, time is the only thing that has changed, for certainly the men of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. are no different from tbeir fathers before tbeiu.