The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-28

600 packs of cigaretS. The Red Cross bought 55,3S1 ,00O packs for kit bags, service men overseas, service patients in hospitals on both sides, and prisoners of war.
 Multiply each of these by four and it would appear that the Army and the Red Cross together are us- ing 2,659,066, 400 packs this year, mostly but not exclusively overseas.
 The Navy estimated g. round fig ure of 800,000,000 packs for it's per- sonnel outside the United States.
 Add these together and you don't need the Einstein theory, or even integral calculus to figure that about 3,459, ,066. 400 packs are being taken off the civilian market this year for the use of soldiers, sailors, Marines, WAC, Waves, Spars, nurs- es, Seebees, officers and gentlemen in uniform.
 This would give each service man and woman 38 cigarets day, the year around, if there are five mil lions among whom to divide them. It is doubtful if the average G. I. smokes that many, or gets them to smoke.
 PROBABLY THERE'S A
 BACKLOG IN TRANSIT
 But it should be remembered the these smokes have to travel long sea lanes in competition with other essential supplies and mater ial, and then go through com- plicated distribution routine, so that there probably is huge back log in transit and in process of distribution at all times.
 Editors Note: You're going great, MT. Heath, but dispatches from Paris say there aren't any American cigaretS in Europe, either)
 In addition to these service sup plies for Americans, lend-lease sent 180,000,000 packs overseas for Brit ish fighting men through Sept. 30. This is at the rate of 20 millions 8 month or 240 millions for the year. And our preserving reporter assumed, in the absence of con- trary evidence, that exports for cash, to friendly nations, will be the same this year as last years 133,- 518,000 packs.
 Now add everything = shipments to our own service people, to Britain under lend-leaSe, to foreign pur- chaserS for cash. The drain on manufacturers output would ap- pear to total 3,832, ,585, ,000 packs this year.
 But the Office of War Informa- tion, on the basis of data from the War Information. on the basis of data from the War Foods Admin istration's tobacco branch and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, says that 4,590,000, 900 packs will go abroad this year.
 That is 757,415, ,O00 more than the inquiring reported can account for. Where are they going? Who knows? IT SEEMS A FEW
 PACKS ARE MISSING
 Now, probably you've been told that more than one-third of our cigarets are going overseas. OWI is one authority for that statement. owl says that on the basis of the first seven months experience. about 16.450, 1000, 900 packs will be produced in 1944 and about 4,59O,- 000,0 900 of them will be tax-free for overseas shipment.
 These taX-free. cigarets," says OWI. would represent percentage in excess of one third of our total cigaret withdrawals for 1914"
 Teaching methods have changed since I was in grade school. So apparently, has arithmetic. When I divide 4.59 billions by 16.45 bil- lions. in my simple way I get slightly Il der 28 per cent. And if remember what teacher taught me, it takes more than B per cent to equal one-third, and still more to be ''in excess of one- third"
 Individually these discrepancies may not be particularly important But taking my word thatI could point out similar ones in connection with almost any aspect of the cigaret mystery, does this give you some idea why reporters can't tell you the convincing truth about why you can't get cigarets?