GIFT TOBACCO

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3036, 24 March 1917, Page 10

GIFT TOBACCO

WHAT OUR TROOPS ARE RECEIVING. ■ Complaint has again been made that some of the gift tobacco and cigarettes forwarded to our troops in Franco and Egypt have been of inferior quality. Our readers and the contributors to the Dominion Gift Tobacco Fund (known as the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Gift Tobacco Fund), are already 'aware that the tobacco and cigarettes purphased .and supplied through their generosity have been a source of unmixed pleasure to\ tho recipients at the front. The brands sent were the Three Castles cigarettes and Capstan tobacco, and at the present moment there reposes on the Editor's desk the. expressions .of appreciation received from thousands of our boys in the fighting line. The brands mentioned are plainly the favourite brands of most of them—indeed, in message after message . this _is stated to be the case —and no gift could be more welcome to them.

It may interest our readers and contributors to tho fund to read the following letter, which speaks for itself: Headquarters, _ New Zealand Division, ■■ : .'" 9th January, 1917. Tho British Empire Trading Co., Ltd., ~,:.. j. 7 Millbank, London, S:Wy Dear Sirs,— I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter of December 15, 1916, advisinc dispatch of 80 cases "Capstan" Navy Cut tobacco ■ and 107 cases "Three Castles." cigarettes. These goods have now come to. , hand and have been distributed. Yours faithfully, (Signed) H. G. REID, Lieut.-Col., . For Major-General Commanding Now Zealand Division. ••'• This, of course, refers to the" latest consignment of cigarettes and tobacco purchased by means of the donations acknowledged through The Dominion. That they reached the men all right is testified to by the thousands of acknowledgments we have since received from France. The Mayor, Mr. J. P. Luke, who is chairman of the N.Z. Expeditionary Force Gift Tobacco Fund, writes us as follows:— Town H?AV \ '■• • , . Wellington, March 23, 1917. To the Editor, The Dominion, Wellington.

Sir,—With reference to the article appearing in to-day's "New Zealand 'rimes," under the-heading "Gift 'Tobacco," in order to prevent any possible misunderstanding,. I should like to definitely state that the funds subscribed by the people of Now Zealand to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Gift Tobacco Fund have been spent entirety on the- Three Castles cigarettes and Capstan Navy Cut tobacco, identical in every way with the brands sold on the New Zealand market. Many of the letters received from the troops at the front, acknowledging gifts of tobacco and' cigarettes sent by the above-mentioned fund, have referred to the very inferior tobacco_ and cigarettes sent by other organisations, but, as the general public might-quite conceivably imagine that their contributions to tho New Zealand Expedi-tionary-Force Gift Tobacco Fund are •being spent on the "rubbish" referred to in the articles of to-day's "New Zealand Times," I would ask you to make it perfectly clear to the general public that nothing but the very best tobacco and cigarettes are being supplied to our boys through the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Gift Tobacco Fund, &<• they are deserving of nothing but '.ho best.—l am, etc.,

(Sgd.) JOHN P. LUKE, Mayor of; Wellington. , Chairman the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Gift Tobacco Fund.