'games and pastimes' was a category of item qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages', dispatched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of war.
Although that's correct, the decision was made NOT to use Red Cross parcels, since discovery of escape aids in a Red Cross parcel might lead to the withdrawal of such parcels and an adverse effect on POWs' welfare. Instead, MI9 set up a range of bogus organisations which sent their own parcels to the camps. Christopher Clayton Hutton was MI9's maverick "fixer" who came up with vast numbers of gadgets which were made and despatched under strict secrecy. His book "Official Secret" came out in the late 50s/early 60s and is a fascinating read.