BRIGHT TROOPSHIP NEWSPAPER

Southland Times, Issue 24601, 25 November 1941, Page 7

BRIGHT TROOPSHIP NEWSPAPER

7TH REINFORCEMENTS AT SEA One of the brightest ship-board publications issued by New Zealand troops travelling to the Middle East is Troopship Tattoo, official chronicle of the 7th Reinforcements. It is a twelve-page newspaper on which has been lavished all the journalistic and typographical art of a big staff of newspaper men who are now serving with the forces. The contributions are topical with a merry vein and the paper is profusely illustrated with photographs and cartoohs. On the technical side a particularly good job has been done, the variety of type and the display being worthy of a high-class daily newspaper or weekly magazine.

Of interest to Invercargill is the fact that Miss Joyce Gilmour, formerly lady editor of The Southland Times, was installed in a similar position on the staff of Troopship Tattoo. Miss Gilmour was travelling on the ship as a member of the first W.W.S.A. party to go overseas. The presence of that party gave many opportunities to the contributors to the paper to brighten their articles.

A native of Orepuki, Private R. W. Watson, formerly of the staff of The Christchurch Star-Sun, was another contributor to the publication. A merry item in the publication described the events in Invercargill immediately after the carrying of restoration in a fictitious licensing poll. It told of the race to secure licences for the new hotels and concluded with the remark that taxis were offered for sale at a top price of £l5, their demand for out-of-town journeys having declined sharply.