LETTERS TO SOLDIERS

Nelson Evening Mail, 17 May 1917, Page 2

LETTERS TO SOLDIERS

WORK BY ARMY POSTAL SERVICE An interesting report as to how soldiers' letters are handled has been received by the Hon. Sir James Allen, ActingPrime Minister and Minister for I>e- j fence, from Major Holdsworth, director j of Army Postal Services. New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, London. Writing under date February 9th, Major Holdsworth says the work in connection with the Department is continuing to ] run smoothly. "The first lot of Christmas parcels arrived on December 14th. I The staff put in excellent work, and practically the whole of the first lot was in France by Christmas Day, and the second lot, 684 boxes, was completed and forwarded by January 4th. There were 50,000 parcels dealt with during December, and 70.600 in January. It has been found impossible to check each newspaper with the cards, so newspapers are sent out as they are addressed. Any that cannot be delivered are supposed to be returned, but. as a matter of fact, comparatively few newspapers are returned, the difficulties of transport being very considerable. It is customary in most units to distribute ; the papers addressed to those men who are not with their unit amongst those who are there. I have spokemsto a mini- ! ber of officers and men and have not yet.met an objector to the practice. Some idea of the amount of mail matter handled may be gathered from the following figures for Decombe/r :—Postings to New Zealand, letters, 392,600: registered letters dealt with, 4524 : bags received From all sources. 3623; number of letters received from New Zealand. 18.400 ; number of ags despatched, 4460; number of parcels despatched from Base Post Ornce, 49.656 : parcels for deceased and missing men opened and distributed to units at the front. 1659 : redirections noted, 30,000; correspondence received and answered. 4509."