BRITISH AIR MAIL LINKS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1934, Page 9

BRITISH AIR MAIL LINKS

COVER WHOLE OF BRITAIN. POSTMASTER-GENERAL’S PLAN. The Postmaster-General is contemplating the linking-up of every one of the great cities and towns of Great Britain and Ireland by air mail in the near future, says the Daily Telegraph. Sir Kingsley Wood is prepared to go a long way. If the public support him, and if the air services are available, he is prepared to bring about a speed-up in postal delivery almost unequalled in the last century. The new air routes being arranged by the railway companies have given him his first opportunity. “Sir Kingsley Wood would like it to be Saphasised that the first contract is beg given to the railway companies purely because a number of regular passenger services organised by them are shortly to be in existence,” said a G.P.O. official. “If any other companies organise new routes their claims to carry the mails will be given every consideration. So long as they guarantee reliability and a saving of time, they will stand a good chance of being accepted.” The times for the new air-mail facilities depend on the arrangements made by Railway Air Services, the company formed last March, to co-ordinate the

railway companies’ aerial enterprises. It was pointed out, however, that the new facilities will make it possible for a letter posted in London to be read in Birmingham and replied to, and the reply read in London, all in the same day. Nearly 24 hours will thus be saved to correspondents. A similar speeding-up will be available between Cardiff and Plymouth and between Birmingham and Southampton. A large part of Sir Kingsley Wood’s scheme rests on the appointment of an air-mail adviser and the addition of extra members, with a knowledge of flying conditions, to his advisory council. They will probably be asked to consider how best to cut down the “terminal times,” of which the full hour taken to get the mail parcels from the Central G.P.O. into the aeroplane at Croydon is an example. An official of Railway Air Services said that the new air services between Birmingham and Southampton would come into operation shortly. “The service will also call at Bristol and Cowes,” he said. “Aeroplanes will leave Birmingham at 9.35 and 2.15, arriving at Southampton a hundred minutes later. They will return from Southampton at 12.20 and 5.15. “The service between Plymouth, Cardiff, Birmingham and Liverpool is already in operation. There is one machine in each direction each day, leaving Liverpool at 8.20 and returning from Plymouth at 4.10. The main service connecting London with Birmingham, Manchester, the Isle of Man, Belfast and Glasgow will be opened soon.”