OVERSEAS MAILS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 303, 22 December 1943, Page 3

OVERSEAS MAILS

CAIRO AND PACIFIC DELIVERY WELL ADVANCED | (P.A.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Postmaster-General, Air. Webb, stated to-day he had received advice of the arrival in the Middle East of the final portions of the Christmas mail sent from New Zealand. He also announced that of the total consignment of over 30,000 "bags of parcels more than half had been cleared through the base post office in Cairo by December 11. When it was realised that the staff of that office had some 250,000 parcels to deliver before Christmas, the size of the task would be appreciated, he said. The officer in charge of the base post office had intimated that all parcels included in the earlier dispatofhes would be cleared through the base in ample time, but that, due to long lines of communication, the later dispatches to units in Italy might not be delivered before Christmas. Every effort, however, would be made to* effect delivery. During November at least four mails from New Zealand arrived in the Middle East and more was expected to reach that destination at short intervals. As regards mails from the Middle East to New Zealand, the Minister said one very large mail had already arrived this month and had been delivered, while another two were in process of being delivered. In addition, six other mails were known to be en route to New Zealand. It was hoped some of these -would be delivered before Christmas, but this depended entirely on the -shipping position. The Minister added that the airgraph system was providing a very valuable complementary service to the Middle East. Recently transmission times of airgraph mails, both to and from the Middle East, averaged under thirteen days. Mr. Webb said the last of the Christmas parcels left the Dominion some little time back for the Pacific forces, and at least some parcels had already arrived in the forward areas. Special arrangements had been made to effect delivery, and. subject only to service requirements and communication delays, the great bulk of the parcels should be delivered in I time for Christmas.