Air Mail Mishap

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 39, 16 February 1938, Page 6

Air Mail Mishap

8,000 NEW ZEALAND LETTERS INVOLVED. There were 8000 English letters from New Zealand on the flying boat Cygnus when it met with an accident at Brindisi on December sth. The whole of the mail was submerged, but it was recovered and sent to the British Post Office. It was able to deliver all but. 65, which have been returned to New Zealand. The dead letter office branch of the General Post Office has traced the senders of 48 where there had beernames and addresses, or other clear indications of identity. This leaves seven teen unreturnable. The mail was under water for several hours, and this caused some varieties of ink to “run,” completely obliterating the writing. In other cases the ink or dye on the inside of thin envelopes was washed into the letters, obscuring the writing. The majority of those constituting the final problem of the dead letter office provide another illustration of the oft-repeated official advice to include in all postal packets a clear indication of the sender’s address and full name, although the writer may prefer to start a letter “Dear Folks,” and to sign with a Christian name. The return of such correspondence involves the post office in the difficulty of making certain that the correct “Bill” or “Tom” gets the letter, otherwise there might be personal complications. Every letter entrusted to the post office is regarded as a particularly private piece of property, which must either be delivered to the addressee, or in case of failure, returned only to the writer.