AIR MAIL SERVICES

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1935, Page 6

AIR MAIL SERVICES

FREQUENCY AND CHEAP RATE. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. British Wireless. ' Rugby, Jan. 14. Referring to the new Empire mail services and the considerable increase there had been in the past year in air mails dispatches from this country to the Empire, Sir Kingsley . Wood, PostmasterGeneral, said that for a really great Empire scheme two things were essential, a much greater frequency in air mail services and a cheap flat rate for Empire air postage. Faster air communications were also desirable, this involving adequate provision for night flying. In the Government’s Empire scheme it had been decided to adopt an important principle, of which the British Post Office lately had been a pioneer in inland mails, that of sending first-class correspondence by air without extra charge. He hoped, with the co-operation of the Dominions concerned, that in 1937 for, say, l%d. art Imperial: correspondent of this country would have a letter transported halfway round the globe within a week instead of a month, as hitherto.: In embarking upon such a project he had been fortified by the belief that the reduction of time taken in the exchange, of correspondence and the introduction at the same time of a flat cheap postal rate would cause traffic to grow to a remunerative level. Above all, the Government had been encouraged to take this historic step forward by the belief that Imperial unity and corporate prosperity were largely dependent upon the freest facilities for rapid intercourse between the nations and peoples of the Empire.