SOLDIERS' MAILS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2634, 3 December 1915, Page 6

SOLDIERS' MAILS

WHY THEY GO WRONG.

Some of the reasons why. gifts Jind parcels, for soldiers do not reach/'tho men for whom they are intended arc stated in a .letter just received by th< Defcnco Minister from Lioutenant-Gol onel Rhodes. .

"Many of tlie gifts coming froni New Zealand," he writtes, ."arrivo in a 4 am r aged condition, owing to careless .'handling by natiyes here, also sometinie's to careless packing. This does not apply to Lady Liverpool's gifts, as these are aJways securely packed. ". The noii-fie-i livery I 'of -gifts is frequently to b4";i'ccounted for by the addresses being diun-" aged or torn off.'' Sometimes it appear that packages' have ' beeir forwarded without any, addresses , ajfc'.air." I saw .a heap of .such parcels yesterday with flimsy labels torn off' or othpraviso damaged- The method adoptpc} ,in some cases is a good one —that.ids, to : sew articles up in canvas, and t<s; write ■the addresses on the canvas. Many of t'he parcels properly addressed ha-Ve nothing to indicate by whom they are sent, consequently these gifts art unacknowledged. 1 " "I have not finished my injestigaVtions with regard to non-delivery'of lei-' ters,- but I can see that there difficulties. It must bo remeiiibered that several mails .have been -destroyed, l'or instance, on August s,':a shell struck and sank a lighter, with the result that' 29 bags of- .New (Zealand mails were lost absolutely. On another - occasion 34 bags of our mails were lost by the upsetting of a lighter l at Mudros. _ A New Zealand mail which was being carried to'the;.-trenches' on mules was blown up by shell .'ire, , and' only a'part recovered,-after lying two days in the open, subject' to; shell and machine-gun fire." \ '' ' Referring to the records of wounded men, Colonel Rhodes says :r—'-'I find that many men reported wounded and put aboard -ships at the O'ardanelles, have so far recovered on reaching here' that they do not land, but, go straightback. This adds to the difficulties of the records in tracing them."