New Zealand.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 43, 22 February 1915, Page 8

New Zealand.

THE “WET” CANTEENS.

EXPLANATION BY CHAPLAIN. MAJOR GRANT.

With reference To the establishment of “wet” canteens at the New Zealand, ers’ camp in Egypt, the following reference is made in a letter from Chap-lain-major Cl rant to the necessity therefor:—

“Connected with the camp are several canteens and tea and coffee tents. As your readers know, there is no such thing as a licensed liquor seller in Egypt—any Tom, Dick, or Harry, or their Egyptian equivalents, can s.ell or hawk about liquor, and some of the stuff 'so peddled is, in the language of an old book, ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ A bottle which a man hauled on board at Port Said was properly sealed and labelled with the name of a. respectable firm. It was seized by the authorities and analysed, and found to contain nothing but methylated spirits, and—well, the other ingriedients are unprintable. The men have been well warned as to the danger of drinking this potent ‘hell-fire,’ and a canteen for the sale of beer under certain restrictions-has been opened in the camp in the hope that the men who feel they must have alcoholic refreshments will dring the beer and avoid everything they are offered in the city. From the point of view of my prohibition friends the provision of a wet canteen seems to be the lesser of two evils. It' is quite certain that men who want it will go to the city for it if it is not provided in the camp.”

JOTTINGS. ' •? Extract from letter received from a Bluff man with the Expeditionary Force in Egypt: “Lord Kitchener has sent word that we are to leave for the front at the end of March, and we are to fight with the French. We will he in the fighting line in April. Over 140,000 troops leave Egypt for the front in March.”

Of the first war issue of £1 currency notes extensive forgeries have been made of three particular numbers— E 71.030171, E7l-058223, and E7l- - Many hundreds of forged notes hearing those numbers arc believed to he still in circulation. There have been no forgeries of the second issue in the improved form.