The Age of the Cigaret

Wherever there were Americans, Europe had a new medium of exchange, subject to all the lamentable fluctuations that affect legal tender. The medium: cigarets.

In Italy the departure of U.S. troops had cut the supply of cigarets to the point where a cigaret currency crisis had set in. The value of a carton was as erratic as that of a lira. Enterprising Italians were doing their best to restabilize by "importing" cigarets by mass smuggling.

In France, where smuggling was somewhat less effective, cigarets (worth $15 U.S. a carton) were an international language. One Salazar Teofilo, a young Spaniard, was arrested last week while doing a land-office cigaret business in the semidarkness of the Strasbourg-St. Denis meetro station. Police soon discovered that Teofilo did not speak one word of French. Through an interpreter they learned that he had entered France clandestinely from Spain five months ago, had grossed 60,000 francs ($500) a week on the magic of the only three words he knew outside his native Spanish: "Camels, Luckies, Chesterfields."

In Austria, a year ago, a carton of cigarets had been worth $100, and comfortable Vienna apartments had rented for two packs a month. A carton was still worth $15. But last week the Austrian Government had the schilling so well under control that real money was driving out cigaret currency. Americans in Austria still use cigarets as their standard tips.

Stummel Snipers. In Germany, the cigaret had opened new vistas of financiering for both victor and vanquished. For a few cartons Americans could furnish their apartments, buy exquisite furs and Leica cameras. German workers found it more profitable to take their daily pay in a handful of cigarets than a fistful of marks. But at $140 a carton, no German could afford to smoke his cigarets. Instead, he sniped stummels (butts), which were valued from 3-c- upwards, depending on length.

Last August, to curb blatant cigaret trading, Lieut. General Lucius D. Clay, then Deputy Military Governor, opened a legal barter center in Berlin's swank Dahlem district. Through one door, Americans swarmed with their cartons. Through another, Berliners brought their bric-a-brac, silver, china, cameras, radios, furs; the cigarets the Germans got in exchange bought food and clothing on Berlin's black market.

Fortnight ago Clay, heeding an investigating committee's advice that he was "encouraging the development of a secondary currency which threatens to become a primary currency," ordered an end to cigaret trading at the barter center by mid-January. Last week G.I.s and Berliners scurried to make their last legal trades before the deadline. But Clay had left one loophole; he had considered it impractical to ban importation of cigarets by mail. While that source remained open, cigarets would continue to be Germany's currency.

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