MAILS FOR 2nd ECHELON

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23058, 28 June 1940, Page 6

MAILS FOR 2 nd ECHELON

NONE RECEIVED SO FAR TROOPS WRITE 60,000 LETTERS HOME (PBESS ISSOCIITIO* TKLEOEAM.) WELLINGTON, June 27. The following dispatch has been received from the official war correspondent attached to the New Zealand Forces overseas:— “Aldershot/ June 26.—1n the eight weeks since leaving New Zealand troops of the 2nd Echelon have written home 60,000 letters without receiving a reply. Mails were dispatched at Cape Town and the port of disembarkation, and to-morrow the first mails will be leaving camp. The heaviest postings by far were those from Cape Town, with roughly 25,000 letters. Some 18,000 letters posted at the port of arrival are how on the way to New Zealand; but the outgoing camp mail tomorrow is unlikely to reach one letter a head, as many of the boys are on leave, and others are not ready to record their impressions. In future, camp mails will close every Tuesday, and expected to reach New Zealand in approximately six weeks. A postal unit, consisting of Lieutenant A. V. Knapp, two corporals, and four men. all experienced postal officers, are among the most hardworking men in the camp, and are likely also to be the most unpopular unless inward mail comes soon. “Meanwhile, soldiers who are receiving cheat' Empire rate cables.from home are envied by their felloWS; The privilege of cheap postage for the troops’ letters home, which was enjoyed aboard ship, is being continued here meanwhile. The concession does not apply to letters addressed to anywhere but New Zealand, nor to newspapers or parcels to any address. An exception has been made of parcels which members of the 2n*J Echelon brought for members of the Ist Echelon, these being carried free to Egypt. The troops are not prohibited from using civilian pillar-boxes; but if they do so, they must pay the full postage on letters home. “Three hundred and thirty bags of parcel and. newspaper mail for the Ist Echelon, mainly parcels, sent from New Zealand with the 2nd Echelon, would normally have reached their destination by way of the Mediterranean, but now, because of Italy’s, entry into the war, they have had to be sent by another route. “On two successive nights New Zealanders in camp in the South of England have been awakened by air raid Sirens. Last night they also saw searchlights and heard bombs burst? ing in the distance. The trOops had previously dug "shelter trenches for themselves, and had been instructed When and how to use them. The New Zealand camps are excellently situated to give maximum protection from air attack.”