POSTAL HISTORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1938, Page 6

POSTAL HISTORY

ARRIVAL OF EMPIRE AIR MAIL LETTER FROM THE BRITISH DIRECTOR-GENERAL. GREETINGS TO NEW ZEALAND POST OFFICE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Post Office history was made with the arrival of the first air mail under the through Empire’service from England to New Zealand. It was marked by the despatch from the DirectorGeneral of.the British Post Office to .the Director-General of the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department of a special mail bag containing messages of greetings from prominent personages. The blue air mail bag was appropriately used for the occasion, with a special covering of silk of “Post Office red” carrying an inscription showing that it was the first through Empire air mail. Inside was found a ‘special date stamp with an ivory handle. It had been used to date the letters “Southampton, July 28,” and on the mail bag is the inscription: “First through service Empire mail scheme, July, 1938.” Writing from G.P!O. Headquarters, St. Martin’s Le Grand, London, the Director-General’ (Sir Thomas Gardiner) sent the following message to Mr G. McNamara, the head of the New Zealand Post Office: “Dear Mr McNamara’, —I am sending you this letter of greeting by the inaugural flight of the new service, extending the Empire air mail scheme to New Zealand, to convey to you and to all the staff of the New Zealand Post Office the good wishes of the staff of the United Kingdom Post Office. We take this opportunity, also, of thanking you for your most able and willing co-opera-tion in the solution of the many problems which have arisen.”