ANTARCTIC PARTIES TO RECEIVE 12,000 LETTERS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28702, 27 September 1958, Page 12

ANTARCTIC PARTIES TO RECEIVE 12,000 LETTERS

One hundred and forty men will receive nearly 12,000 letters next 'eek—their first mail since early last March. ■They are the wintering parties at the New Zealand Scott Base and the United States Antarctic stations at Little America and McMurdo Sound. When the United States Antarctic expedition. commander, Rear-Admiral George J. Dufek, leaves for McMurdo Sound early next Wednesday morning, the only cargo his

command Skymaster aircraft will carry is fresh fruit ana 300 pounds of mail—including 10 pounds of letters for the 11 men at Scott Base. The 120 men at McMurdo Sound and the 11 men at Scott Base will receive their mail shortly after noon on Wednesday, while the mail for the 109 men stationed at Little America will be flown there as soon as possible. The first flight between the two stations this season was made earlier this week. At the United States Antarctic post office, in Hereford street, Petty-Officer William L. Simmons and Seaman Henry J. Kelly have been kept busy during the last few days sorting each man’s mail into separate parcels. There is a wide difference in the amount of mail each man receives, said Petty-Officer Simmons. “Two or three men must have friends who write' to them twice a day.” All the men’s letter mail will go down on the first flight, but parcels will follow when the i ular flights start later next week. For the United States four stations, McMurdo Sound, Little America, Byrd and the South Pole, there are 3500 pounds of letters and parcels—inclu’ding many newspapers—stored • in Christchurch. Mail for the Byrd and South Pole stations will go in by the first air drops by the Air Force Globemasters.