MAY DAY CABLES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1939, Page 4

MAY DAY CABLES

THE FREE MESSAGES

MORE THAN 250,000

FAR BEYOND ESTIMATES 1

The offer of free social messages made to the. public of the Empire on May 1 has.been an overwhelming success, according to advice from the head ofiice of Cables and Wireless, Ltd., to the New Zealand manager, Mr. C. T. Halsted.

The public in all the Empire areas concerned availed themselves to the full of the opportunity of exchanging greetings with their friends and relations overseas; the^ filing being the heaviest between Great Britain and New Zealand and- Australia.

So remarkable was the volume of messages, far exceeding anything that could have been anticipated or has ever before been experiened in overseas telegraphy, that over a week elapsed before the total lodged have been cleared, it being essential of course to ensure that there was no interference with the large volume of J commercial traffic which is normally carried. In New Zealand it was estimated that something approaching 10,000 messages would be lodged for Great Britain and a corresponding figure in the reverse direction. These figures were more than doubled; the messages in both directions totalling nearly fifty, thousand. k

The total handled by Cable and Wireless, Limited, between Great Britain md the various Empire points participating in the free service exceeded a quarter of a mllion messages, which far exceeds anything ever known in the history of the company for one day's overseas traffic.

Mr. Edward Wilshaw, chairman of Cable and Wireless, Limited, commenting upon the company's response to the free offer, stated that it was a gratifying vindication of the company's policy of introducing a cheap service for social and personal intercourse among friends and kinsmen separated throughout the Empire, for which no sufficiently attractive facilities have hitherto existed.