ARMY SMOKES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1941, Page 2

ARMY SMOKES

THE CIGARETTE ISSUE WELCOME EVENT ON THURSDAYS. SOME COMMENTS ON QUALITY. (NZE.F Official News Service.) CAIRO, October 11. Two days stand out in every week 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 dit-

ferent nature. It brings fifty very welcome cigarettes, and at a time of the week when Tobacco in any shape is worth its weight 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 ai*e many soldiers of thrifty habits, who, without apparent physical or mental discomfort, manage to 'make the Army issue fulfill all their J smoking requirements. These strong-' willed people are an object of persistent wonder and speculation as to their ultimate powers of endurance and potential 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 were 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 “throat-burn-ers” 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 cat tons ' bearing popular English trade-marks ' made then’ 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 —“Honeydew” and “Viceroy.” Some of the more literaryminded immediately nicknamed the former “Kubla Khan,” remembering Coleridge’s imaginative lines: “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 the first N.Z.E.F. will still have poignant memories of the cigarette issues of those other campaigning days. Names like “Red Hussars,” “De Oro,” “ ’Art a mo’ ”, “Ocean Spray,” “Smith’s Studio,” “White. Check,” and dozens more, will easily be recalled. They might not have been

the best that money could buy, but there were 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 their fathers before them.