CIGARETTE IS KING

Evening Star, Issue 25677, 28 December 1945, Page 8

CIGARETTE IS KING

The cigarette is “ king ” throughout war-ravaged Europe to-day (says a writer in the Edinburgh 1 Evening News ’). At no time is this more evident than when the daily 8.A.0.R. leave trains stearii slowly into Rotterdam.

For a couple of miles outside the station, the railway track is lined with a motley crowd of men,- women, and children, begging for cigarettes. And the troops lean out of the carriage windows, dispensing the new currency to the suppliants below, as kings of old dispensed largesse to their loyal subjects. Children of all ages form by far the largest proportion of the cigaretteseekers. Little barefooted toddlers and lanky adolescents all join in the same cry: “ Smokey for papa, Smokey for papa!” Some hold up their clasped hands as if in prayer. Others offer apples, tomatoes, or even bunches, of grapes, hoping the troops will snatch them as the slow-moving train passes by, and give cigarettes in exchange. NO QUARTER GIVEN! When I came on leave recently they were asking a cigarette for an’ apple or a tomato, and 10 cigarettes for a bunch of grapes, but mostly they just rely on the Britishers’ generosity. Many of the adults among the crowds are respectably dressed men who stand about self-consciously, cap in hand, and, when a cigarette comes their way, acknowledge it with a salute, shamefacedly. The women hold out a wide variety of receptacles—shopping bags, their aprons, eVcn 'open upturned umbrellas. ■ When a cigarette is thrown out a forest of hands is outstretched to catch it. If it falls to the ground no- one stands on ceremony. There is no question of “Ladies first,” no ideas of sportsnianship. There is an undignified scramble, and the quickest and most unscrupulous wins. The troops look down on the strange scene with a mixture of amusement, pity, and disgust. But there is an element of grimness, too. 'The children stand perilously near the train wheels at times, |ind already there is a death-roll. “ King ” Cigarette is a dangerous monarch to serve under.