THE CAKE HABIT IN THE ARMY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12061, 17 July 1917, Page 2

THE CAKE HABIT IN THE ARMY.

(By a GUNNER, in the " Daily Mail.") The tall gunner with the South African ribbon sniffed with satisfaction as ho turned a page, of his morning newspaper. " And not before it was time, too." he exclaimed vehemently. "What's the trouble?" I asked, borrowing the pa pel - . "Why, this .stoppage of cakes between meals. We were becoming a cake and cocoa army. Cakes, cakes, penny cakes, every blinkin' break. Talk about kids' fondness for toffee! It's nothing to the craze for cakes. Look at the Y.M.G.A.'s and the Baptist huts, and the Catholic Women's League huts, they are just- glorified confectioners, selling cakes by the thousand."

"But don't you think a change of diet is necessary?" 1 asked. "You must remember we don't get pudding every day, and theweakness for sweets is net only a human but a healthy i craving." "Healthy, be blowed! It's just a , ti habit, like the beer habit, and I'm not ; sure that the cake habit isn't worse ; than the beer habit. It sickens me to [ see fine, strapping young fellows hug- ! ging plates piled with cakes. They | spend more money on sweets than I many an old soldier like me ever spent on beer. They have cakes after every blooming meal, and they aro dashing for the coffee bar at every ten minutes' i break. Some of 'em spend the night , swilling cocoa and munching cakes like flappers having a weekly treat at a teasliop." | "There may be something in what you say," I agreed, " but cakes are a comparatively cheap and convenient addition to the regular rations. You yourself were grousing tins morning over the amount of bacon we had for bre.akfa.st."

" There is a. difference between grousing and gluttony. This morning's breakfast was an insult to a full-grown man, and it's time somebody told the quarter ' bloke ' a few barrack-room truths. I sat down hungry and I got up hungry, and I couldn't afford to buy any grub out of my own pocket. But that's only once in a- way. What I'm complaining about and what the Aldershot command is coins to stpr> is this ' wolfing' of calves at all times of tho day. You must have seen yourself that the coffee-shops are like tuckshops, and the soldiers gobble cakes like schoolboys. It's sickening. Some of 'em ought to have been in South Africa, with two biscuits and a. pot of jam for rations. I remember " * * * *; «

The veteran gunner is a good "chap,'' but he remembers so much and so often about the South African campaign that I suddenly recalled I was barrack orderly for the day and pleaded the call of duty. On my way to thn nearest "Y.M.C.A. " I pondered over the old gunner's attack on the cake habit of the.citizen army. Entering the room I looked round with a critical eye, and I saw perhaps throescore of young men all eating cakes. It was the forenoon break, midway between 7.30 breakfast and 12.30 dinner. The mingled aroma of tea, coffee a'id cocoa was blended with cigarette smoke, and there was a. long and eager queue leading to the counter. A corporal passed mo complacently surveying half a. dozen penny cakes on his pinto. He sought a quiet corner and steadily and stolidly consumed sixpennyworth of sweetened flour. Cake-eating is a solemn and serious business. Tho New Army is practically teetotal. I have served indifferent parts of the country during my six months' training, and I have seen less drunkenness in the ranks than could be seen in a single night in any large city in pre-war days. But I have seen more gluttony than is good for a nation. Too many cakes from the recreation huts; too many food parcels from home is the source, I am convinced, of not a few of the minor troubles which go to swell tho sick parades. Stopping the sale of cakes and pies between meals is a wise and timely order.