AIR-MAIL FROM EGYPT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20572, 4 June 1941, Page 8

AIR-MAIL FROM EGYPT

MIDDLE EAST FORCES

three weeks in transit

(Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day

The Postmaster-General, the Hon. P. C. Webb, advises that the first airmail from the forces in the Middle East to be received in the Dominion since the temporary interruption of the Empire service owing to the Iraq incident was delivered yesterday.

The last air mails received from the Middle East before the interruption were dispatched on April 26 and 2!) and were received in New Zealand on May 11, while the air mail received this week was dispatched on May 13. The latest air-mail took nearly three weeks in transit, about a week longei than normal. This delay was probably due to two causes, first, the congestion caused by a temporary interruption of the Empire service to the west of Karachi and, secondly, the fact that another section of the Empire service was at present operating less frequently. The restricted frequency over this section was likely to have the result of increasing by a day or two the normal transit times which before the interruption varied from 10 to 16 days.

Advice has also been received, states Mr. Webb, that because of the restricted loading capacity the use of the Empire air service for the conveyance of air-mails to East and South Africa and to the United Kingdom is temporarily suspended, but that service to places in Persian Gulf, Palestine, Egypt and the Sudan continues. The discontinuance of the use of the Empire service for air-mail correspondence to the United Kingdom will not in the present circumstances cause and added inconvenience as this service, which involves sea transport, frequently entails transit times in excess of those for mails sent by the normal sea routes. Although air-mails for South and East Africa will be adversely ail'ected, it is found in practice that only a comparatively small amount of air mail is sent to those countries by air from New Zealand.