WAR PRISONERS’ BIG MAIL

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 January 1942, Page 5

WAR PRISONERS’ BIG MAIL

UNFAIRNESS-TO RELATIONS "LONDON, Dec. 15. Some British prisoners of war m Germany have been getting tanmail” Of such film-star . proportion from girls in Great Britain that the Post Office is appealing to the public not to write to a prsioner unless he is a relation or a friend. Both British and German censors handle the letters, and the mail causes delay. Even close relations of prisoners are now being limited to writing once or twice a week, on one side of one piece of paper . “The position, a G.P.O. official explained to an Evening Standard reporter, “is that censorship of foreign languages is a difficult matter. We know that British prisoners in Germany are getting their letters held up it is unfair to wives and mothers if one man’s postbag is full of fanThese letters, written mostly by young women, are usually sent to men with high-sounding names, with titles, or men to whom awards have been made. ~ . Snobbery, it is said, plays as big a part as sympathy in inspiring the writers. One man has been sent as many as 100 letters in one post. Addresses of prisoners of war are now consequently being withheld.