Abergavenny Tobacco Fund

From the Abergavenny Chronicle, 29th December 1916.

OUR TOBACCO FUND

(The district branch of the Newspapers Patriotic Tobacco Fund).

OUR SPLENDID LOCAL REGIMENTS.

How our Tobacco Fund is Cheering the Men.

Not a single man in our local regiments or battalions need be without the comfort of a cigarette or a pipe of tobacco, if only our readers will continue their support of our Tobacco Fund and explain to their friends the advantages and privileges we have obtained for their convenience.

Not only continued support is wanted, if we are to accomplish our object, but increased support also.  We want more of our readers to take advantage of the arrangements we have made, which enables them to send a small supply of cigarettes or tobacco at regular intervals, duty free and post paid, to their own friends and relatives at the front.

These fine fellows want a smoke every hour of every day.  They don't want a lot of cigarettes or tobacco sent to-day and then to wait for weeks before the next parcel arrives.  They can't carry a lot around with them—their kit is cumbersome enough already—but they want a small supply regularly and often.  This is just what you can arrange through our Tobacco Fund.

Moreover, we want our readers to remember—when arranging to send parcels of smokes through our Tobacco Fund to their friends—that there are many friendless soldiers in our local regiments, and battalions, friendless in the sense that, unlike other fellows, they have no one at home able to send them regularly the smokes for which they are constantly clamouring.

And so, when you send your remittance with instructions for parcels for your own friends, please include as large a donation as you can for sending 1/- parcels containing 50 good cigarettes and a packet of splendid smoking tobacco to such friendless soldiers.

By reason of our association with the Newspapers Patriotic Tobacco Fund, of which our fund is the branch looking after the fighting-men for our own district, the distribution of our General Fund parcels is made through Sir Edward Ward, the Director-General of Voluntary Organisations.  This ensures our Tobacco Fund parcels going just to the local men who are most in need of them.
Sir Edward Ward is the supreme head of a special department appointed by the Government to control all patriotic funds, and is doing all he can to see that the distribution of comforts from home is fairly and equally made between all the fighting men on Active Service.  Our men must be as well looked after as those from other districts.

And so it is we appeal to our readers for renewed help.  With the increased number of our local men at the front, the demand for cigarettes and tobacco is increasing and particularly insistent.  We know we shall not call in vain upon the generosity of our readers.

Exhibition of Hospital Supplies

From the North Wales Chronicle, 22nd December 1916. 

RHOSNEIGR.

HOSPITAL SUPPLIES: EXHIBITION OF WORK.

On Wednesday there was a particularly interesting exhibition of work at the R.W. Hospital Supply Depot, which has the distinction of being the first of its kind opened in the county.  It is affiliated under the scheme of the Director General of Voluntary Organisations, is recognised by the War Office and is duly registered under the War Charity Act of 1916.  Although it was only in October last that the organisation took its present form, the enthusiastic members, numbering forty-one, had, on Monday, no fewer than one thousand two hundred and eighty-five articles ready for dispatch, exclusive of some thousands of swabs.  The exhibits included all kinds of woollen comforts and hospital dressings, besides many of the pretty cretonne “treasure-bags” so much appreciated by the wounded.  Many of the members devote several hours daily to this good work.  The president (Mrs. Johnson, Windigate) and her allies (Mrs Barff, hon. Secretary, and Mrs Slack, hon. treasurer) are much to be congratulated on the all-round success of Rhosneigr’s excellent lead in this urgently needed work.

The “Flashlight” Habit

From the Dundee People’s Journal, 2nd December 1916.

The "flashlight" habit seems to have been acquired by the majority of Dundee folk, but unfortunately a number of these seem unable to use a flashlight properly.  Evening after evening girls are observed walking along with a lamp held straight in front of them, and the consequence is that any one approaching from the opposite direction is momentarily blinded.

When this happens the person who is approaching, not being able to see in front of him, generally collides with the owner of the lamp, to the no small indignation of that individual.  Just the other night I witnessed this happen, and heard an elderly gentleman receive abuse which he certainly had not earned from two young women. 

All this unpleasantness could quite well be avoided if those who carry torches would, instead of holding the light straight out, let it strike downwards against the wall at their side.  In this way the rays are cast on to the pavement, and act as a guide for both those who carry the lamp and those who are approaching. so that both parties can clearly see each other.

[Pedestrians were carrying flashlights because the street lights had been turned off for fear of air-raids, I assume.]