Evening star., 1944-07-23
rom overseas.
BY ELWIN STOUFFER,

SbSA St1li SOtieSpohuc4lk
BALTIMORE, July 22-Approxi-
mately 1000 packages. containing
every kind of fighting front souve-
Mrs from live snakes to machine
guns, pass daily through the Balti-
more Customs House.
Customs officials call some of them
headaches, but most of them get
through even when officials don t
know exactly what they are.
There appear to be no rules about
souvenirs. A soldier from Seattle,
stationed in the South Seas, will
send home coconut. Another will
60 to great lengths to pack the
remnants Of a japanese rifle butt.
The stream OF packages affords an
excellent chart of the area covered
by the war, however.
The packages came from England
and Ireland, first beginning with
Irish linens, tablecloths and British
woolens. Immediately after the
invasion of North Africa there came
q fiow of hand-tooled moroccan
feathers, perfumes and silver. fill
greed jewelry. From Egypt came
semiprecious stones, colognes, nov-
city jewelry and Arab costumes.
The armies moved north into
Sicily and Italy. and bedspreads,
glassware, porcelain ware. statuary
and womens stockings and lace
panties began to arrive.
Every Zone Represented.
On one large table in the customs
ONCE of the Baltimore Post Once
objects, that represented almost
every battle zone OF the war had
been laid out for inspection.
There were embroideries, cash.
meres, carved ivories and woods
from India There were koala bear
toys, sheepskins, kangaroo mats
and wood specimens from Australia
The South Sea islands contributed
perhaps the oldest assortment. It
included grass skirts mot supposed
to be shipped without first being
sterilizedo, woven bags and a dozen
sadgets that not even the customs
officials could figure out a use for
These were mostly items that
members of the armed forces
bought. The souvenirs that come
In the greatest quantity, however
are those the soldiers did not buy
They are the trophies OF the bat
tie fields. Captured machine guns
and rifles, knives and helmets. They
are the dozens of odd pieces of en-
emy equipment that GI Joe can
pick up in the zone of action.
George w. Hill, a deputy collector
Of customs for the Baltimore office
and veteran of IS years in Gov
ernment service, pointed to the mass
Of souvenirs.
IT'S amazing" he said You
have to work with this stuff to know
what big business souvenir send
Ing Is In war.
In the last war the field of opera :
tions was comparatively limited.
Then souvenirs chiefly consisted of
captured enemy equipment and
women's stockings and lingerie
picked up in various parts of Eu-
rope.
Live Snake in Package.
Now you don't know what to ex-
pect. One day an employe was
opening a package and spied a long
black object coiled in the bottom.
When that snake raised its head
and looked that man in the eve he
gave a Shrek that still echoes
around here.
Only the other day we got a
snake skin here that measured over
IS feet in length. 1t didn't have a
head nor tail on it and I've often
wondered how long it might have
been when 1t was crawling around. :"
Mr.. Hill described the law which
allows the sending home of souve-
Mrs as follows:
Members of the armed forces,
not including civilians, Red Cross
workers, USO personnel and war
correspondents, stationed overseas,
may send bona f1de gifts home up to
the value of $50 on which there will
be no customs charge. This is in
accordance with Public Law 709
passed since Pearl Harbor."
He said the only limit on the kind
OF souvenirs selected appeared to be
the restrictions of the customs and
postal laws. Beside the $50 customs
limit the postal authorities set
limit OF 10 pounds on each package
and a size of 100 inches, length and
g1rth combined.
OF course, you have to use your
own Judgment about weapons, he
said. we know of course that some
OF these machine guns must have
cost the enemy lots more than $50
but we figure that If the military
authorities considered them not
worth retaining they have lost all of
their practical value"
Firearms Cause Most Grief.
According to military regulations,
the sender Of souvenirs must first
secure permission OF one Of his