SOUVENIR DODGES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 251, 11 July 1918, Page 7

SOUVENIR DODGES

Gone aTe the days tvhen "Tommy" could bring home in triumph, for all the world to see, a complete set of German equipment, including helmet, rille, and bayonet, and a few odd borate and shells to decorate the walls of his homo. Army orders prohibit the carrying oil' of trophies from the battlefield, and hawk-eyed military police watch tho leave-boats to seo that nono is taken aboard. But nil the orders in tho world and all the precaution? ever invented will not slop souvenir hunters. And our warriors luivi! the craze worse than the nimble-fingered gentry who used to specialise in railway straps, hotel siwp, and towels, .publielio'usu match-stands, and chips of granite from old castles. To cur "Tommies" souvenir hunting is part of the great adventure. They would rather have <i (jcrinnu li'iell case than the D.C.M.—I mean the medal, not the coiirl-nmrtial with tho tsame initials; mid a Hun bayonet means more to them than permission to wear tluw chevrons and a quantity of gold stripes. Once they have got llm stull' that their hearts desire they will spend hours thinking how they can smugglo it home. They will carry their souvenirs about with them from rest billets in the trencliis, on a long iivfc from mie part of the lino to another, sometimes even refusing to dump it when going into action. They will sacrifice little comforts ■that mean s<> much in the line so that they oim stow a "dud" German bomb or the fuse cap of a shell in their pack. And after euarding their treasures like a diamond tor mouths they do not intend t.) lnt ji military policeman nt the base coniisciile them and slop their leave into the Imyain. . The dodges that have been worked to siunyfb stull' home are .withoii!' number but not without ingenuity. ' Men hnvu dvmped their own rifle- with !ii>i quartermaster or in some ((iiartcr, and carried oil' a German one in a waterproof case past the "picket" at the boat. But tho policoare "wide" en lhi> mutter now. and few, if.any, can ha ;;o- through. "Dud" bombs and piece.? of shell have been bound into puttees because haversacks uro liable to be searched; extra pockets have been sewn into tails of overcoals. I heard of quo "Tommy" who i i this way brought "nome a pat dog he hud picked up in his wanderings; Jjully beef tins have been opened, their contents extracted, and resoldered whh the souvenirs insido. A very iron ration indt'Pfl sometinios! And iho iiir.azing tiling about it all is that very of the souvenirs liave any intrinsic value—but then fen - souvenirs have! It U i'he trouole they take to get—and rclais—and the story that (joee with them that -count. And Tommy's are not witlicul: troiiblo or story!—"VV," in tlio "Daily Mail."