AIR MAIL ROUTES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 4, 4 July 1940, Page 10

AIR MAIL ROUTES

NO EMPIRE RATE NOW

LETTERS WRONGLY STAMPED

With a sublime disregard of the fact that there is now no air route available for Empire mails between Egypt and the United Kingdom, many New Zealanders continue to post mail matter granted at the rate of eighteenpence for each half-ounce in the belief that it will go all the way to England by air. It won't, and it won't go even as far as Egypt by air, although it could, for that would simply mean it had reached a dead end. The war, having extended to the Mediterranean, places a barrier against the transport of mails by that route.

What the postal officials do with this optimistically-stamped mail is to send it to its destination by the quickest surface route, which means that the unthinking sender has paid much more for postage than necessary. That, however, is his mistake, and the Post Office's gain, for no refund is obtainable.

If it is really urgent that a letter should be sent to Britain as quickly as possible, it is still possible for it to go by air part of the way, but not via Australia at the Empire rates. It can be sent to Honolulu by sea, and for the time being there is no other method by which it can get there. From Honolulu it can go to New York by air and thence to the United Kingdom by sea, at a cost of Is 9d a halfounce. Alternatively it can go from Honolulu to Lisbon by air, and then on to its final destination by sea, but the cost of this is 4s a half-ounce.

Hence it is obvious that the placing of eighteenpence and an air-mail label on a letter is wasted optimism under the present circumstances, but it is still quite largely being done. When the Pan-American Airways Pacific service starts, it will be possible to speed up letters destined for the United Kingdom, provided, that is, the sender is prepared to pay postage at the rate of 6s 3d a half-ounce. Letters carried at that rate will have to be very important ones.