OVERSEA MAILS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 53, 2 March 1907, Page 6

OVERSEA MAILS.

ACCELEBATIXG THE SUEZ KOUTE. (Prom Our Special Correspondent.! LO>TDON, January 26. The question of the acceleration of what is iknovrn as the Brindisi mail, and the transit 6f the Indian and Australasian mails through Egypt ha? once more been placed on the tapis by a letter addressed to the Earl of Cromer by Mr W. P. Kingham, the president of the British Chamber of Commerce. The Indian mail, which leaves London every Friday, is conveyed "from Brindisi to Port Said by one of the twin steamers Isis and Osiris. At Port Said, which is reached on Wednesday usually about nine o'clock a.m., the mails are transhipped into the P. and 0. steamer, which usually arrives on the previous afternoon. The mail gets clear at about ten o'clock on the Wednesday morning, and steams through the canal in from fourteen to eighteen hours, and, therefore, takes a little over five days to get clear of Suez from the time it leaves Loudoa. The suggestion put forward by the British Chamber of Commerce is that the mails be landed at Alexandria, taken by train to Suez, and there snipped on the P. and O. steamer. The mail boat from Brindisi could get to Alexandria on the Tuesday evening at six o'clock, a train could be in waiting alongside the quay, and the mails could Be taken direct to Suez, and there placed on board. Under these conditions the mail boat would leave Suez at the hour it usually starts from Port Said, thus gaining nearly twenty-four hours for the mails on the time in transit at present. The idea of the trainers of this scheme is primarily, of course, to get an earlier delivery of mails'in Egypt, particularly in Alexandria, ■where the greater part of Egypt's commerce is done. India and Australasia, however, will also benefit by any saving of time made in connection with this mail service. Naturally objection will be raised to the new plan, one of them that the extra transhipment will lessen the time saved. But, e-cen if the latter is reduced to twelve hours the save will warrant the change. The P. and 0. boat can easily get to Port Said before noon on Tuesday, and so be at Suez in time to receive the mails from Alexandria. In case of quarantine the trains from Alexandria to Suez and vice versa could be run under quarantine, as is done in other countries, so that should not raise any obstacle. %