AMERICANS’ MAIL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 307, 30 December 1942, Page 4

AMERICANS’ MAIL

AIRGRAPH SERVICE Wellington, Dec. 29. American servicemen in New Zealand have available to them the advantages of an airgraph mail service. This is similar to a method of pos’.al delivery which was inaugurated b\ Britain in April, 1941. The harnessing of photographic science to the postal services enables letters to be so reduced in weight that air carriage for the volume of lei tors customarily written by servicemen becomes easy. The Americans call their airgraph letters V-mail, and all the forms specially provided to their servicemen for this type of letter are prominently marked “V . . . -Mail,” to impress on letter writers that the use of this form of mail, by the saving in space it makes possible, is a definite contribution towards victory. Forms provided for these letters measure Ilin, by Bin. At the top is a panel for the block-printed address to which the letter is to be sent, with room on each side for the sender's own name and postal address and for a censor’s stamp. Space available for the letter itself is about Sin. x Bin. The completed form is photographed on to a miniature film and then sent by air to the country of destination. On arrival an enlargemen* measuring sin. by 4in. is made and placed in an envelope with the blockprinted address showing through a cut-out panel in the envelope. Proving the saving in space resulting from use of this mail method is the fact that, whereas 4500 letters weigh 1681 b.. the same number of Vmail letters in film form weigh only lib. V-mail does not take the place of, but supplements, the normal letter service. The necessary photographic processes are carried out at the nearest possible point where the eouipment is available and a statement on the bark of the V-mail forms assures the writer that his letter will be destroyed after the corresponding film has been delivered at itc destination.