FREE CIGARETTES

Sir, - Now that No Smoking Day is over again - and I can have an extra puff
at my pipe to celebrate - I could wish that the anti-smoking zealots would
be a little more understanding, for example, of the ex-service community.

An old soldier, who fought in Burma with the KOSB, and works alongside my
allotment, wheezes away with most distressing emphysema. "It's the fags, ye
ken, Sir." Of course, its the fag's, but remember that his generation
received 50 free cigarettes a week on active service from a grateful
Government which didnae ken about lung cancer, or if it did, it kept very
quiet about it. And which Scot with an ounce of smeddum is going to refuse
that freebie?

I only tried a fag once - in the bottom of a slit-trench just this side of
the Rhine, scared stiff. It was utter bliss.

(Brig) Frank Coutts Oswald Rd, Edinburgh