LETTERS FOR BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1941, Page 13

LETTERS FOR BRITAIN

THREE SERVICES

CHARGES FOR AIR MAIL

With a view to clarifying the position regarding the dispatch of mails to the United Kingdom, the Post Office advises that there are at present three methods of dispatch—by surface means, by the Empire air-mail route, and by the Pan-American air service.

By surface means the average transit time is at present fifty days, and the rates of postage are 2d for the first half-ounce and Id for each additional half-ounce.

Letters prepaid at the rate of Is 6d each half-ounce (9d for letters not exceeding half-ounce if addressed to members of the fighting forces, but on letters exceeding half-ounce the full rate of Is 6d for each half-ounce must be paid), are dispatched by air to Cape Town and thence by surface means to England, this being the only Empire air-mail route now available. According to recent information received from London, the average transit time is forty-five days. It will be seen that under existing conditions the gain in time by dispatching letters by air at the Is 6d rate is not great.

The quickest dispatch is by the PanAmerican air service (New Zealand-U.S.A.-Lisbon). Letters sent by this means normally reach England within ten to twelve days, but the postage rate is high—ss 9d for each halfounce.

The, trans it, times mentioned above do not, of-'course,'-include the time: taken under present conditions in delivery after receipt in Great Britain, and allowance should also be made for the interval between posting and mail dispatch from New Zealand.