Air Mail Reaching N.Z. Troops In Fortnight

Northern Advocate, 17 November 1941, Page 3

Air Mail Reaching N.Z. Troops In Fortnight

[Per Pres*! Association—Capvright..] WELLINGTON, This Day. “Ten days to the Middle East— that is all it has been taking our mails to reach base post office,” said the Post-master-General (Mr Webb) on Saturday. He added that under existing conations this was particularly good. It neant that manysoldiers were receiving their air mail letters within a fortnight after despatch from New Zealand. Although a little time must necessarily elapse between the time of the receipt of air mail in the Middle East, and their delivery to units it nevertheless could be said that soldiers were receiving their news from home while it was still fresh. Mr Webb also stressed the fact that surface mails, on the other hand, were slow and some parcels and newspaper mail took as long as three months on their journey.. For the last five months the average time was GO days. In attempting to unravel some of the apparent mysteries of mail deliveries. said Mr Webb, people would do well to remember that air mail transmission meant exceptionally fast transit, while surface transmission for newspapers and parcels, meant exceptionally slow transmission.