Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1940. COMFORTS FOR FIGHTING MEN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 August 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1940. COMFORTS FOR FIGHTING MEN.

BOOKLET issued with the compliments of the National Patriotic Fund Board gives authoritatively and in adequate detail the information and guidance needed by those who wish to do what they may, by the dispatch of parcels and in other wavs, to contribute to the comfort and pleasure of the members of our fighting forces, now playing their part, or prepared to do so, in various fields of war overseas, on land, at sea, or in the air. The booklet is well compiled and embodies a wealth of information, not only in regard to postage and other communication rates, the composition l and packing of parcels and cognate matters, but also on such aspects of knitting and cooking as concern the preparation of comforts lor dispatch overseas. It has something to say, also, about the administration of the national patriotic funds and sets due emphasis on the need, in the interests of the members of our fighting forces wherever they may be, of maintaining these funds by a steady flow of contributions. This little publication should be obtained and read by alt who are taking the practical interest they should in the welfare of our fighting men.

It may be hoped that one effect of the dissemination of dependable information on the subject of what is being and may be done in the (lispatch of comforts overseas will be to prompt suggestions for the modification or improvement of existing arrangements where that is desirable. One proposal that was advanced recently in Australia and may have been adopted there by this time was that provision should be made 'for the dispatch of reply-paid air mail letters to soldiers and others on. active service. Under this plan, the transmission charges both ways would be paid by the person addressing an aii' mail letter to a soldier and the hitter would receive with the letter a franked reply form, so that he need only possess or be able to borrow a pencil to be able to reply forthwith. This arrangement no doubt might be extended widely to our fighting forces without imposing any serious strain on military organisation or transport.

Another matter which deserves immediate and serious attention is the ban placed on the dispatch of tobacco or cigarettes to soldiers in Egypt, and only to those in Egypt. Tn spite of what anti-tobacco cranks may have to say on the subject, no single item of comfort is more valued by an overwhelming majority of our fighting men than the kind of tobacco they are accustomed to smoke in their own country. In this matter, however, the National Patriotic Board booklet offers no encouragement whatever. One of its injunctions is: “Don’t .forward cigarettes and tobacco ... to troops in Egypt,” and in another passage it, states that heavy rates of duty apply to parcels containing tobacco or cigarettes sent to Egypt. Means surely may be found of overcoming this prohibition and of permitting the dispatch to our soldiers in Egypt, without the imposition of further Customs charges, of tobacco or cigarettes which have already paid heavy duty in this country.

It does not meet the case that tobacco and cigarettes are included in. unaddressed parcels sent to the troops. These parcels at best are few in number and it should be possible for kinsfolk- and friends to supplement them. The prohibition meantime enforced constitutes a definite hardship and one that can hardly be defended. It may not be out of place to suggest that the Prime Minister (Air Eraser), busy and burdened as lie is. would be well warranted in giving the question of the dispatch of tobacco Io Hie troops in Egypt, his personal attention. There is not much doubt that if he did so, means could be found of enabling our soldiers in Egypt to receive tobacco sent to them without their having to pay the heavy rates of duty now demanded in that country.

THE AFRICAN CAMPAIGNS.

ALTHOUGH it will occasion some natural disappointment.

that the Italians have been permitted to make an easy advance into British Somaliland, it is clear that the military importance of this advance, and of the hold obtained on a further limited stretch of the Red Sea coast, is small. ■ The little port of Zeila, which the Italians have occupied, stands on the shores of the Gulf of Aden, but its value no doubt is indicated in the fact that Britain offered to cede it to Italy at the time when an attempt was being 1 made to bring the Abyssinian question to a peaceful settlement. So long as command of the sea remains with Britain, it seems unlikely that any extension of her invasion of British Somaliland will appreciably improve Italy’s position and outlook. As regards air attack on Aden and on shipping in the Red Sea, Italy is already possessed of bases in Eritrea, and of course derives appreciable advantage also from the collapse of French Somaliland.

The great question awaiting an answer in the African campaigns is whether Britain, with Empire aid, is in a position to adopt the policy of vigorous action advocated by FieldMarshal Lord Birdwood in a recent article in the London “Sunday Graphic.”

We must expect determined attempts to gain control of the Suez Canal, the Sudan, the Red Sea and the Upper Nile (Lord Birdwood observed). We must not await the enemy’s choice for points of attack. We must attack him. We must powerfully assault Italy immediately by sea and by air, forcing the Italians to withdraw from the war. Italy's chief ports, including Taranto. where much of the Italian Navy is skulking, should be intensively bombed. The Libyan garrisons should be kept isolated, while revolt is stirred up in Libya and Abyssinia.

This reads like good counsel, provided the means are available of carrying it into effect. It is very largely, no doubt, a question of the numbers of aircraft and the quantities of other war material available. The results of the fighting that has thus far taken place in the air, at sea and on land open no rosy prospects for Ihe Italians and there does not seem to be any doubt that excellent opportunities exist for British offensive action in Africa and elsewhere in the Mediterranean zone, provided men and material can be assembled in adequate strength for the purpose. An excellent beginning has been made in powerful air attack's on the Italian Red Sea naval base of Massawa and on the warships sheltering there, ami if is inspiriting nows that: “Tlu> arrival of new British bombers on this front has been a shattering surprise for the Italians.”