The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1919-10-24
A Letter From Overseas.

Lieut. G. Olaf Jensen, who is serving
in the Quartermaster office OF the A.
e. F. at Antwerp, Belgium, has writ
ten an interesting letter to his mother,
Mrs. Hannah Jensen, parts OF which
we have been permitted to publish,
knowing that it will be of general in
terest. 1t was dated Antwerp, Sept. Is.
Dear Mother: Monday we discontin-
ned our mess at the Bosche House, and
| am now living at the Anglo-Belge Y.
nj. c.. A. Have very nice room. Two
of the officers at the house have re-
turned to the States, leaving only three
of US, so it hardly was advisable to
continue living there, inasmuch as l
am leaving for Paris in few days.
had hopes of getting home, for awhile,
but Monday a telegram came in order
ing me to duty in Paris, with the U. 5.
Liquidation Commission, having been
assigned to General Krauthoff, splen-
did man to work for, so am told and
what have seen of him, so the outlook
is good. Am leaving Antwerp on Sat
urday and you may send my mail IN
care of the Chief Quartermaster,
American Forces in France, Paris,
France. / had very nice trip to Paris
q week ago, but as this was the second
trip I had made via automobile, we
practically covered the same ground as
before, and it was uneventful.
Antwerp is gradually losing its sight
of Americans in uniform. There are
scarcely half dozen officers left. The.
last Of the crew left on Monday, so
happen to be the only one left OF the
old crowd that arrived here in March.
1t is planned to use the port OF Ant
werp as a forwarding port only, re-
ceiving supplies from the United States
and trans-shipping them up the Rhlne
and to Danzig (for the Silesia expedl-
tion). CONCENTRATIONS are that there
will be but three officers at this port
and half dozen soldiers, most OF the
work will be done by the Red Star Line
who have contracted for che delivering
of the supplies know nothing more
of the Danzig expedition, other than to
saw that am going to try and get IN
on it, if they need anyone at the port.
NV assignment to the u. S. Liquida-
ton Commission is the elimination of
the work | have done with the general
sales agent here. / believe it was
through him Colonel Hasson) that
got it. The Colonel left last week for
Paris on his way to the States, and as
all the supplies had been sold the office
was discontinued, am satisfied.
Thousands of tons of export goods
are arriving daily at Antwerp, for COM
mercial firms. You may tell the boys
that this export trade includes an enor-
NOUS amount of tobacco, Sumatra and
considerable case goods from the
States that Immediately caught my Wis
ion from the fact that these cases had
the old familiar mark of the diamond
and the gross and tare Cigars selling
in the various stores here possess
very different quality of smoke from
the domestic cigars manufactured at
home. The wrappers are usually OF
light color, and the aroma of the cigar
is extremely mild, with little or no Ha-
vana. Cigarettes are of English man
ufacture.
We have all been more or less inter-
ested in the rise of the American dollar
in comparison to it's value with francs.
Yesterday it reached its highest mark,
nine francs and ten confines for one
dollar, with strong indication that 1t
is going TO ten francs. 1t will doubtless
remain that high until such time as
manufactured goods of France, Bel
gium and England, as we'll as Germany,
can be exported to the States. Allied
nations will be compelled to start trade
operations with the Bosche very soon
At the time Belgium re-occupied their
states, including Antwerp and Brux-
Giles, German marks were in clrcula-
ton entirely. The result was that they
naturally came into possession of about
twenty millions in currency. For this
money they will be obliged to purchase
supplies from Germany in order that
they may receive benefit, whereas ii
they exchanged the marks on the mar
ket at the present rate of exchange
they would derive little, as franc now
brings two marks. What an enormous
loss to spectators would it not be, who
have been taking gambling chance IN
purchasing marks, to have the German
government call in the marks and have
them all stamped, giving only one-half
of their face value. That is to say, re-
turn one mark for every two brought
in. and to declare all other marks that
did not have this special stamp on void.
1t would by this method enable the
German government to repay portions
of their enormous debt, and place the
value of mark to desirable increase
in value. This procedure, was told,
actually took place in one of the prov
inces of Poland, and they made it a
law, carried it successfully into execu-
ton, and nothing was said.