Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1942. TOBACCO FOR SOLDIERS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 March 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1942. TOBACCO FOR SOLDIERS.

— ' - ■■•'■■■ J.\ itself, the extension to the Middle East of the arrangement under which relatives and friends may dispatch parcels of tobacco o]' cigarettes to soldiers, through the agency of the National Patriotic Hoard, is to be welcomed most heartily. There are some details of the scheme, however, which might easily be improved upon greatly. As a rule, for example, a soldier on active service in the Western Desert may be more embarrassed than pleased at receiving as much as a pound of tobacco, or an equivalent quantity of cigarettes, at one lime. A pound of tobacco will last almost any smoker at least for several weeks and perhaps for a month or more. A soldier roughing it in front line service has no means of keeping tobacco in good condition for the time that a pound would last and during part of that time the added weight to be carried about might be a considerable nuisance. A great improvement on the present plan would be to allow relatives and friends to forward to soldiers orders for tobacco, leaving it 1o the soldiers to draw on the orders in quantities and at times to suit themselves. The orders might be a set of coupons, each of them good for, say, two ounces of tobacco. Except at times when troops are in rapid motion, there should be no great difficulty in maintaining a flow of supplies of tobacco right up to the front lines, 'with which to meet orders of this kind. If any doubts are entertained by the National Patriotic Fund Board as to the desirability and necessity of amending its tobacco scheme on these lines, it should get into communication on the subject as speedily as possible with the soldiers concerned. Its inquiries of course should be addressed, not to representatives at base camps or headquarters establishments, but to men serving on the Desert battlefront. .