INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 22 June 1937, Page 4

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE

DEFICIENT STAMPING A WEEK’S EXPERIENCE The Post Office recently gave a. public reminder that penny postage is far from universal, its reason being that a large proportion of the mails to countries requiring the international postage rate 2£d for the first ounce are short-paid. A general survey of the position suggested that the proportion of short-paid letters reached at least onethird of the total, and this has been confirmed by close observation at one of the principal post offices during the period from 7th to 12th June. Owing to the King’s birthday this return covered only five days, and during that period the short-paid letters posted fdr overseas destinations were as follows: Country. Percentage Short-paid. France 35.5 Germany ; 22.2 Switzerland 72.7 Denmark 33.3 Austria 38 Holl'and 15.3 Belgium 40 Sweden 12.5 China 18.9 Japan 19.1 Every letter to Russia was insufficiently stamped, but the correspondence to Spaih and Norway, a very small proportion of the total, carried the full postage required under the international scale, and thus avoided penalising the recipients to the extent of double the amount of deficiency.