HOW THE SOLDIER GETS HIS LETTERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2534, 7 August 1915, Page 15

HOW THE SOLDIER GETS HIS LETTERS

The most important hour of tho whole day to the British, soldier at the front in Franco is undoubtedly that when tlio mail from homo is duo to arrive. The soldier in tlie field appreciates Lis letters moro than anything else. Tho postal organisation at the front is so detailed and so skilfully planned I that seldom, if over, does any letter or parcel go astray through the fault of tlio Tost Office. Under the control of Colonel AVairren, who held a similar position in tlie Boer War and who has a staff-of over 1000 assistants, mostly trained postal servants from offices in the British Isles, the whole servieo works smoothly and without hitch. Nearly half a million letters and about 60,000 parcels aro received daily for distribution at the front, while the record was reached recently, when over 7000 bags of mails camo over in one "day. In somo special cases letters are delivered at various points in our lines twelve'hours after leaving London, special bags, and lorries serving the various headquarters. From London to the Trenches. By tho system at present in force all mails for the front are sorted at tho General Post Office in London, bags being made up for each .unit in the field. On arrival at tlio base in France the bags are unloaded from the steamer and packed 011 to the supply trains that are going np to the front with rations, ammunition, and material for troops. There is one supply train for' each railhead, as the unloading point of a supply train is called. Tlio average number of trucks filled each day in this way is 38. At the railhead special motor lorries have to be provided for letters, which must not be delayed. Supplies can wait, but mails cannot. At tlio refilling point, which is the furthest point of tho motor-lorry's journey, the responsibility of the Post Office ceases. I Tj!o mails .are handed over to tho regimental _ orderlies, who aro responsible for their delivery to the men in ' their battalions. For a refilling point some quiet spot off the main road is chosen, and here the field post office is established in some shed or small cottage. Tlie staff sleep here and 'improvise the fittings of their office out of packingcases and any other stray material that may como to hand. The ingenuity shown in making pigeon-holes and desk fittings out of egg-boxes is surprising. Just when the post is duo a long lino of horse wagons, one from each unit of the division, forms up outside the post office. : The regimental orderly is now responsible for the safe delivery to each soldier of the letters and parcels addressed to him. This is no easy task, as each battalion receives an average ,of well over one letter per day per man. If the unit in question happens to be in the trenches on that day, tlie letters are taken up by tho communication trenches and handed over to tlie officers commanding the different companies. If the men are in billets, then each company attends at a certain spot and has its mail handed to it. Sudden moves of unitß and all similar contingencies are covered by a system of special lurries. Letters and parcels intended for men who have been killed or wounded (tlie latter are oftoa very hard to trace) aro all returned to London, each letter or parcel being marked killed, wounded, or missing as the case may be. In London they are held over at the General Post Office until the official casualty lists have been issued. The authorities fully realise the terrible shock a parent would feel on receiving the first intimation of tho loss of a son by having his own letter returned unopened with the single word "killed" written across it. Bad addresses are the main cause of non-delivery of letters. Regimental numbers or the particular battalion to which the addressee is attached are frequently left';but, rendering delivery a. matter of great, and often insurmountable difficulty, while the spelling frequently leaves much to bo desired. In one bag no-fewer than forty different ways of spelling the word "Expeditionary" were, counted. At the beginning of the war, when the printed field postcard was first issued, many people mistook the official marks ("A.F.A. 2042 — 114—Gen. No. 52481") that appear 011 the top left-hand corner of each card to be the address of tho soldiers at the front. The result was that some thousands of cards healing this singular address, which was no doubt imagined to be in some wonderful; codo adopted by the AVar-Office, woro received at post offices all over the country. - One Tommy! who arrived at a certain baso on a troopship was put to sleep with a number of,others in a large died on the wharf, 011 which was painted the number "10." On the wall of the shed was painted 111 huge letters tho common inscription, 1 "Defense d'Afficher," being tho French equivalent of "Stick no bills." Accordingly when the soldier wrote home he notified his parents that his address at tho front was "10, Defense d'Afficher, France." Similarly the Fronch word "Ralentir," used on road signposts as an indication. to traffic to slow down, has figured largely in letters home as an address. The general excellence of the field post offico may be gauged by the fact that the French authorities recently .made, a request for full information as to 'the postal system in use in the Brit-ish-Army:'