MILITARY MAILS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 338, 10 November 1915, Page 3

MILITARY MAILS.

SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES,

Complaints about the Irregularity of the military mails have been many and freqeunt, but at a meeting of the Wangamii Patriotic Committee, Captain Monro gave those preecnt some idea of the difficulties with which the men of the postal service at the base in Egypt have to contend. "You must .remember/' he f&id, "that we may have four or fiv3 thousond men at the Dardanelles, in addition to which there are thousands scattered among the hospitals in Egypt, hundreds in different hospitals all over England, and large numbers of others constantly going and coming. When a reinforcement draft arrives a complete roll is posted on the register. When a mail comes in, it may contain a letter for, say, Private D. Jones, whose regimental number may be 1113/33. The sorter handling that letter has got to go right through all his lists in order to trace the whereabouts of this particular private, who may in the meantime have proceeded to the front and possibly have been wounded and posted to one or other of the many hospitals in England, Egypt, or elsewhere. This takes a long time to do, and experience has shown that in many cases it is practically impossible to get letters promptly to the men for whom they are intended. Again, a mail for members of a particular reinforcement may arrive at the base just after the draft has left for the front, and here again unavoidable delay is occasioned. Naturally, the den like to get their letters, but they are reasonable, and they recognise that after all letters are a secondary consideration, and that in the stern game of war so many other things come first.' As to parcels, no doubt hundreds go astray, but there are tons upon tons of them to handle."

Captain Monro said he had personally investigated the operations of the base postal department, and he was perfectly satisfied that the- staff was doing all that was possible under the circumstances.

In reply to an inquiry, Captain Monro said that in the beginning the postal staff were short-handed. Every fit man was wanted at the front, and could not be spared for the work of sorting letters. The position, however, was better now. Men slightly incapacitated and consequently unfit for active service, were now employed )n postal work.