SECOND ECHELON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 September 1940, Page 3

SECOND ECHELON

INCIDENTS IN ENGLAND ARMY MASCOTS. NEW ZEALAND TOBACCO IN DEMAND. (From the Official War Correspondent attached to the New Zealand Forces in Great Britain.) ALDERSHOT. August 6.

"Borax,” unofficial mascot of the Wellington Rifle Battalion, was away from his base on a hundred-mile route march when he heard over the air from the 8.8. C. that the girls at the Hutt Valley High School are making him a coat. He was deeply touched, and inordinately proud of the greatness thrust upon him. With admirable tact he refrained from mentioning that he has a coat already. No doubt he felt —and what High School girl will disagree?—that when one has worn the same coat through the autumn of the Southern Hemisphere to the threshold of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, he is entitled to another. So now Borax, too, is watching the mails. Although he is enjoying English life as well as any of us, Borax is no longer quite the star attraction he was on the transport. There are now other mascots, an international company of them, although Borax is the senior—which counts for much in the Army — and has come the farthest. The West Australian wallaby that lives with the South Island Rifle Battalion was acquired in Perth, and the A.S.C.’s monkeys came from Sierra Leone.

New Zealand manufacturers, especially those trying to establish new lines in popular favour, would be greatly heartened if they could listen to the tobacco talk of our troops. Only a dozen or so years ago, hardened smokers turned up their noses in scorn at the offer of New Zealand tobacco; they each had their favourite overseas brand, and nothing would swing them from it nor from the conviction that New Zealand tobacco was not. and never would be, “real” tobacco. One realised that in recent years the public taste had altered considerably and was swinging in favour of. the New Zealand product; but one has to live among soldiers, especially now that all reserves of New Zealand tobacco have been exhausted, to appreciate the thoroughness of the change-over. There is more consistent grousing about tobacco than about anything else —and the tenor of it all is that “real’ tobacco, New Zealand tobacco. is unobtainable! So widespread have the complaints been, indeed, that representations are being made to New Zealand to see whether the lack cannot be supplied. Now that the Empire air mail service is disrupted by war. the Pacific — North American —Atlantic service, by which some of the more fortunate of bur number had letters from home last week, a bare fortnight after their posting, is in high favour. When we use it, the cost (in sterling) is four shillings and sixpence a half ounce; it costs you (in New Zealand currency) six and threepence a half ounce. But be assured that the kindly thought induced in recipients are well worth the money!. If you feel you cannot often run to six and threepence, the special-rate Expeditionary Force cablegram is worth notice; no charge for address, fivepence a word there after, with a minimum of half-a-crown. That again is sterling: you may have to pay the New Zealand equivalent, but even so it an inexpensive means of keeping touch. There is not much room for loneliness in Army life, and few of our boys are ever more than momentarily homesick. Remember, however, that they are constantly meeting British troops, all of whom are within leavereach of their homes and many of whose wives and families are' here in the command. When on top of this contract the mail brings no letters for him. a New Zealand soldier is apt to be just a little sore. Five words and a surname signature by cable cannot give him much home news; but they may mean a tremendous lot.

After a broken spoil in the middle of July the English weather has turned again to summer at its best; or summer with the outriders of autumn already in view. Harvest is in full swing, and although here in the south the area under crop is much less than in the more agricultural counties of England, and in Scotland, all cereals promise good yields. Nothing to do with our training, the state of the harvest, but a great deal to do with the country's war effort, of which for the moment we are part. Tent life continues to be very pleasant, but the War Office is promising parents and relatives here that all troops in the United Kingdom through the winter will be quartered either in barracks or in billets. Transfer is to be complete by the middle of October. We shall accordingly be moving, somewhere, within the next ten weeks. Where and when probably will depend upon the enemy more than upon the seasons.

Opportunity has lately been taken to complete details of equipment, particularly in the case of men whose requirements differ from those of the majority. Thus all who wear spectacles regularly have been supplied with two pairs fitted with flat stems in place of the usual round stems. These sit closely against the side of the head and enable the wearer to wear also his gas mask without danger of its leaking where the rubber rides on spectacle stems. The special glasses, the lenses of which are similar in strength to those the soldier ordinarily wears, are supplied free. Again, all gas masks are being tested in use, to ensure that they fit closely and permit, no leakage. After fitting his mask, every man is passed into a chamber heavily charged with tear gas. and kept there for about five minutes. Ho soon knows if tear gas is getting past his mask, and if it is he raises one hand. Thereupon he is taken outside and the fitting of his mask adjusted before he returns to the chamber. A mask is not passed as correct until there is no suspicion of leakage. And as each one is passed the wearer is marched back through the chamber without his mask —to convince him that he was being protected during the five minutes of his earlier stay! He emerges with eyes streaming and smarting, and is warned not to rub them. In three or four minutes the inconvenience has passed, but by that time the soldier has developed a new affection for his mask. There are no permanent effects of tear gas. On the other hand, a mask which protects from it will protect from any other known gas.