MORE CIGARETTES MADE

Grey River Argus, 17 May 1946, Page 5

MORE CIGARETTES MADE

But Shortage Grows BRITAIN’S BLACK MARKET AND HOARDING. LONDON, May 14. _ Although the cigarette shortage in Britain has not hitherto been as acute as in New Zealand the symptons which have been familiar in New Zealand for some time past arc now manifesting themselves m London and the provinces. Inquiries reveal that the shortage is most acutely felt in London, Bristol, Nottingham, Cardill and Flymouth. Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are at a loss to explain the reasons for the shortage in view of the fact that production is already nearly 30 per cent, above the 1939 figures that the Board of Trade a month ago authorised , a seven per cent, increase in supplies to retailers. and that the supplies to the forces have decreased by approximately one-third.

Whatever the reasons, cigarette smuggling from the United S'tates is reported to be steadily increasing and shopkeepers at most ports are complaining of the steadily growing black market in American cigarettes. Squads of customs men are conducting an anti-cigarette-smuggling drive on all ships arriving in the Thames. The latest discovery was a sack ot American cigarettes suspended inside a funnel of a tanker, which put in to a Kentish port.

“Sorry no Cigarettes” signs are becoming increasingly frequent in shop windows, and popular brands are sold out early in the day by most tobacconists. A search will usually produce a few packets of the more expensive brands, including Turkish or Egyptian, but as in New Zealand preference is almost always extended to regular customers. Questions have already been asked in the House of Commons about the reasons for the shortage, which is being felt acutely, even in Bristol and Nottingham, where cigarettes are made in hundreds of millions every by the Board of Trade is that stocks week. The official explanation given have been depleted by the services’ requirements, and that the public demand’ has increased. An appeal has been issued, asking smokers not to hoard, and to buy only their normal requirements.

One explanation is that the public is smoking more heavily and another that many smokers are laying in stocks against an expected shortage during the victory celebrations.