SOLDIERS' LETTERS,

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15501, 31 January 1916, Page 3

SOLDIERS' LETTERS,

MISSIVES THAT ARE RETfRNED. A NEW -'DEAD LETTER" BRANCH. An astonishing number of letters fail to find their billets in Egypt, unci are returned to New Zealand. This. 11111 the circumstances, is not all J hiult; there are many reasons for 1 Some men have been killed, some ha've returnee! to New Zealand, wounded, some are missing. The letters come bac " in largo bundles by every boat, a" have to be dealt with by the 1 osta authorities, and returned to the senders or to tlie men themselves if they hare been invalided home. The task of dealing with these letters —and many parcels too —has steadu} increased in magnitude as the months have passed by. The Circulating Branch of the A\ ellington Office has, until quite recently, undertaken the work. .But 011 the 21 st inst. a new department was created under the advice of the Chief Inspector (.Mr .Morris), and without any trumpet hcraldings it , 1S now in full swing in an office in the General Post Office, with a special staff of twelve ladies, under .Mr G. Nelson. It is an extremely busy branch. The work accomplished since the outbreak of war lias eloquent testimony in the S-5.0C0 letters that have so far been dealt with, that is to say, that, number have been opened, the addresses of the senders ascertained, and the letters returned to them. Ju some case the writers have considcrI ately written on the envelope the address to which the missive is to be returned if it fails to find its billet, and this has greatly facilitated the work in those instances. The Postal authorities now urge all senders of letters to soldiers to state 011 the back. of the envelopes the address to which the letter should be returned if" it should come back from the; front undelivered. Envelopes providing for this can now be purchased locally. A "Post" representative, visiting the new branch office 011 Saturday morning. «aw the big pile of letters that had come in by the last mails from Egypt. Baskets of them, already dealt with and enclosed in yellow "i)cad Letter ' envelopes, were ready for elcspatch through the Post Office. Others were under examination, and others again were, being sorteel into their respective pigeon holes, for every letter is erlassified for the purpose of expedition. About GOO ''orders" have already come ill front various sources as to the redirection of letters, and these arc all classified anel are consulted when the letters are opened. AVlieu the Defence officials visit the vessels which bring back invalided soldiers they supply each man with a "redirection" form, which lie is expected to fill in. This instruction unfortunately is not always obeyed. So far about 600 parcels and packages have also been returned from the front. Many of them bear evidence of their long journey. They arc a very miscellaneous collection, comprising ,cakes, clothing, sweets, socks, comforts, and many other gifts. Greater difficulty j than in the case of the letters is experienced in discovering the person to whom to return the packages, because they really contain the name of the. sender. It is usual to- find in them such bare messages as "Love from .Alary." In one case a lady had encloseel a shirt in a tarred wrapper, and the tar had melted ui the tropics and the shirt had ceased to bo white. Some of the cakes arc vermin ridden, sweets have melted, anel iced and chocolate-coated pastry usually in a sad mess.. The authorities suggest that on the outsielo.of. the packages shoulel" bo 1 placed that they bo disposed of at the discretion of tlio base authorities at the front it' the addressee cannot be found in a treasonable time. If returned they are I useless. In instances where the address I of the sender cannot be found, the local authorities forward them to the office of origin. Among the last lot brought back is a very fine case of engraved pipes, and, so far, the authorities have no clue to the sender. A s more men go to swell the ranks of those at the front the volume of returned letters will increase, but it is satisfactory to know that tho Post Office has taken the matter in hand, anel is dealing systematically and capably with a difficult problem.

A returned soldier now in Auckland received last week six large official envelopes containing fifty letters originally* addressed to him from New Zealand and Australia, while he was on servico at Gallipoli and in hospital in Egypt, and some of which seemed to have been following him round in random fashion for months. Ho states that some of tho letters were even sent to England, though ho-never was there. Others show, from their postmarks, that they have been to the hospital at Pont dc Koubbeh, where he was .a patient, but as no date is given, it cannot be ascertained with certainty whether they arrived while he was under treatment. In some eases, .however, it is clear that the letters were in circuit while ho' was either in the ho«pital or tho convalescent home. The point raised by the addressee (says the Auckland "Herald") is why the New Zealand postal authorities in Egypt could not have ascertained from the hospital records that he had gone on from there to the home, and • have traced him to his whereabouts. In the interests of comrades who are still on service, he hones for more thorough and systematic search in the hospitals and homes before the quest by the post olfioo is given up as hopeless, and correspondence for "news-hungry soldiers is turned back to its place of origin.