MAIL UNDER DIFFICULTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 111, 11 May 1940, Page 18

MAIL UNDER DIFFICULTIES

FPHOSE of us who live in large towns, ■ enjoying to the full the postal facilities of a particularly well-organ-ised service, are sometimes inclined to forget that delivering mails is not always a matter of trucks and bicycles, or even a walk round the block, says the "Christian Science Monitor."

For the average ten letters daily delivered by the Tregaron, Wales, postman, ten hours are spent on the back of a pony.

Walking conditions are such at Dungeness, on the Kentish coast of England, as to necessitate, for the local postman, the use of what are known as backstays. These are wooden boards six inches wide and about 12 inches long, which the postman is obliged to wear strapped to his Loots" because of the sinking condition of the soil.

The postman who delivers letters to the staff of the South Stack Lighthouse, in Anglesey, has.to-mo.unt more than 400 steps. ' - '

That keenness for punctuality is ex-

pected from rural postmen no less than from their town brothers is humorously brought out in an anecdote related by Stuart-Chesmore in his book, "Behind the Letterbox."

Because a head postmaster in some rural district was worried on account of the late arrival of his postmen, he conceived the idea of getting them to state on official forms their reasons for returning late, hoping by this means to get at the root of the delays.

One postman in particular was a bad offender in this respect. Day after day he was late. But he was never at a loss for an excuse. One day he wrote on the form as a reason for being late, "Puncture"; another day it was "Heavy load"; on other occasions it was "Snowdrift," "Cattle on the road."

By some fluke or other he one day returned to the office strictly on time. Rising supremely, to the occasion, he wrote on his form: "Back on time, thanks to sheer grit and perseverance."

time fuse intended for ground targets is designed also to function upon impact. , There are numerous types of special shells. Smoke shells are employed for screening effect, to mask hostile fire, and to delay observation. Their principal use is to furnish concealment for ' advancing troops in order to allow them to move unobserved for the purpose of surprise. Star shells are some* , times used for purposes of illumina- \ tion.

The usual form of gas attack is by shell bombardment. Gas shells are lighter than ordinary shells, but may be employed with any calibre of gun. They usually contain gas in liquid form. The difficulty of supplying ammunition in adequate quantities restricts their use.

Artillery has the attribute of. long range. At from one to two miles, the enemy has no fear of rifle or machine gun fire, but he cannot be safe from { artillery at much greater distances. Artillery's speed is another factor. At nine miles- a shell will reach the enemy in from 30 to 40 seconds. The range of guns was increased during the World War by improving the shell's streamlining, raising the gun's tensile capacity, and changing the kind of powder. Without any substantial redesigning they were able to fire 8 to 18 per cent, further, while newly-de-signed guns showed range gains of from 40 to 100 per cent. This improvement has been progressing ever since, and in some cases the range of the shell has been stepped up 160 per cent, from 1914.