Lethargic Officialdom Is Bar To British Use Of Fastest Transport

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 857, 28 December 1929, Page 6

Lethargic Officialdom Is Bar To British Use Of Fastest Transport

New Zealand Lags Farther Behind

*JEW ZEALAND is one of the very few countries of import--I'l anee in the world that have not regular air mail services. Even some of the very small countries, such as Iceland, have efficient transportation of mails by air. In some places the air mail services are run to a time-table which is prepared for six months ahead, and which is adhered to with remarkable fidelity. An interesting accompaniment of the progress of such services is a widespread recognition of the fact that special stamps are necessary for them. It is suggested that an important factor in the comparative failure of the longest air mail service in the British Empire, the Imperial Airways route between Great Britain and India, is due to the refusal of the British Post Office to issue a special stamp for air mails.

Great Britain is not the only great nation which has not yet issued, officially, special stamps for air mall services, but so many air mail rontes start from Croydon, London’s famous airport, that the refusal of the Post Office U> issue special stamps for use on these mails is a striking example of rigid conservatism. Recently the London “Daily Mail” investigated the condition of the air mail service between Great Britain and India, and to that end a member of its staff flew to India and back by a mail ’plane. The investigation revealed some astounding facts. The air liner which took the "Daily Mail” correspondent back from India to England carried an India-to-Britain mail of only 4501 b of letters —which the driver of a horse-drawn postal van would consider a small load. One bag that was carried for nearly 3000 miles carried only- one letter. The service is carried out excellently, the flights being made exactly to schsdule and a time-table being kept faithfully. At present the service is kept from full development in the transportation of mails by official inertia and the lack of an international postal agreement. The best route cannot be followed because there is no international postal agreement on air mail services, and so the journey to India is extended in distance and time. The air mail service runs to Karachi, and from there letters for other parts of India are carried by railroad. But the train service in India is too slow and too irregular. The long-contemplated extension of the air service from Karachi to Delhi and Calcutta needs to be carried out. From the start of the Imperial Airways service to India the ultimate intention has been to connect, via Rangoon and Singapore, with an Australian air service. But before this can be done effectively indolent and unenterprising officialdom in Great Britain must be shaken into action. Some people think that the cost of sending a letter from England to India, or vice versa, is rather excessive, although it is only 6d more than the normal postage, but it is pointed out that the bigger the load the lower becomes the economic rate for each

letter. . .. There are, also, several air mail services between Great Britain and the Continent of Europe. Official Procrastination.

Seven years ago the heads of the British Post Office considered the question of issuing special air mail stamps, and they had some designs submitted to them, but they abandoned the project. The “Daily Mail” now has come to the conclusion that the lack of special airmail stamps militates against the success of the British airmail services. *

This view is endorsed by a British aviation expert who has been touring South America in connection with contracts for the purchase of British airplanes of different makes and types, and who has found that the issue of special stamps has been found of great value in helping the air mails.

From a postal point of view, the great value of having special air mail stamps lies in the way they advertise the air mail services—in their creation of an “air mail sense.” In a minor degree they help to facilitate the work of mail sorters, although a more effective way of doing this is the use of special envelopes having coloured bands printed across them. In the United States of America, for example, envelopes for air mails have a blue and a red band —separated by a band of white—printed hori-

zontally across the middle of the envelope. Best of all, for the sorters, Is the use of both special stamps and special envelopes. The British way of having a comparatively small “sticker” with the words “By Air Mail” printed on it, placed on the envelope, appears to be of little use, for mistakes in the sorting of air mail letters for abroad are frequent in the London Post Office. The use of air mail stamps certainly has done a great deal toward directing [attention to this swift method of conveyance of letters. In theory, of course, |any ordinary stamps should serve for the conveyance of a letter by air mail, provided that the letter bears the full rate of postage, but practical experience demonstrates that the issue of special stamps does assist postal business, and this fact is breaking down the opposition even of those stamp-collectors who object to the issue of stamps that are not absolutely necessary. Some little prejudice against special air mail stamps has been aroused by the action of a few countries in issuing such stamps when they had no air mail services for which the stamps could be used. But even that objection is being weakened by the fact that often the stamps, by making the public “airminded,” have prepared -the way for the introduction of services. Every observant person, stamp-collec-tor or not, notices any unusual stamp on a letter addressed to him, and after he has received a few letters bearing air mail stamps he gets the knowledge that air mail services exist firmly fixed in his mind. Then, when he wishes to send an urgent letter by a route on which there are air services, he automatically thinks of dispatching it by that means. Great Britain has relied on the use of posters for advertising its air mail services, but it is said that these have not been designed well, and this method of advertising has been a failure. “Slogan” Postmarks. The United States of America started another method, the use, for this purpose, of what are generally, though perhaps not quite accurately, known as “slogan” postmarks on letters _ passing through the Post Office. This is a twopart cancellation, the name of the receiving office and the date being stated in a circle which forms the first part of the cancellation, and the “slogan” being given in an oblong frame in the second part. In the American form a line-drawing of an airplane* in flight occupies the greater part of the oblong frame. Above this drawing appears “Air-mail” and below it “Saves Time.” The use of this cancellation is, of course, additional to the use of special stamps. Sometimes the “Air-mail Saves Time” cancellation actually appears on a special air-mail stamp. Australia used adaptations of this postmark even before it brought special air mail stamps into use. The wording of the American “slogan” is follow'ed in one form of the Australian cancellation, but the outline of an airplane in flight is different. In another Australian cancellation the public is adjured to “Use the Air Mail. About 90 countries have made, use of air mail service, so far, and about 50 of them have officially issued special stamps for this purpose, while about 20 more have allowed semi-official stamps to be used In payment of the extra rates on airborne letters. In some places the air mail services have proved so successful that the special rates of postage for them have decreased steadily. At one time the United States of America was divided into three air mail zones, with a minimum rate of 10 cents within a zone, the rate rising to 15 cents when the letter had to go from one zone into another, and to 20 cents for the three zones. Non there is a uniform minimum rate of only five cents (2£d) for the whole of th«* United States.