MISSING LOVERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 122, 17 December 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

MISSING LOVERS.

Foreign Office in the royal palace at Madrid there is now a typical sorting office —registers, boxes, ami indexes — where hundreds ol employees work night and day answering and sorting the thousansd of letters addressed to the King ot Spain, livery letter is an appeal to His Majesty to assist the writer to'find a husband, brother, or lover who has been reported missing in tho casualty lists ot tins great war. lp to July 31st last 13,70U letters had leen attended to, no communication Icing overlooked or ignored. As soon as tho King—the self-ap-pointed General Postmaster of the sorrowing—receives a letter it is acknowledged with a printed loriu saying steps are being taken. These applications are rorwarded to tne Spanish Ambassadors anroad, and according to the reply a brief telegram is first sent.. the news is good, followed by a letter giviug. particulars. In the case of death an appropriate sympathetic letter is sent breaking tho sad news. It began this way. A French aristocrat, tired of sending letters to Vienna and Berlin in an attempt to trace her missing lover, hit upon the idea of writing to King Alfonso, asking him to use his influence on her behalt. The King was touched by her letter and instructed his Ambassadors in Germany and Austria to make inquiries. Within a fortnight the lady was informed that the missing man had been captured at Ypres and was interned near Leipsig. 'lhe lady was so overjoyed that she went about telling what had occurred and the story found its waj into the newspapers. After that letters poured in upon King Alfonso from Belgium, Russia, England, and France, and His Majesty gave instructions that the basements of the royal palace should be fitted with all the necessary requisites, and installed a staff ol competent sorters and linguists to deal with the correspondence.