The Record of the Gazette Tobacco Fund

The Gazette Tobacco Fund was established following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and continued through to war's end in 1918. Its purpose was to solicit donations from Gazette readers and the general public for the purchase of tobacco and related products for delivery to the Canadian troops, especially those from Montreal, serving in England and on the continent. Each package contained one Briar pipe, one rubber lined tobacco pouch, one tinder lighter, fifty cigarettes, four ounces of tobacco, and a return post card addressed to the donor. The paper argued that “our boys are giving their lives; all they ask of us is something to smoke,” and went on to claim that: "There is also a weight of medical opinion in favor (sic) of smokes for the boys as a means of relieving their minds from the oppressions of various sorts that are more or less inseparable from their difficult and dangerous work."

Montreal

Gazette Office

1919

52p.

en