CHRISTMAS MAILS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1943, Page 3

CHRISTMAS MAILS

HEAVY ARRIVALS FOR TROOPS IN MIDDLE EAST. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, December 8. The first part of the Christmas mail for New Zealanders in the Middle East has arrived from the Dominion andjs in process of sorting at the New Zealand chief post office, Cairo. This mail, which is the largest ever to arrive on one ship, comprises 19,289 bags of parcels and 1359 bags of newspapers and periodicals. The actual number of parcels for individual soldiers is 182,357. A large letter mail has already been delivered, and a proportion, of the parcels has reached the hands of the soldiers. The postal staff is working 24 hours a day to ensure that there is no delay in the delivery of the mail to the units. More than 1000 bags of parcels can be sorted, redirected and transmitted to the units by postal un • its in one day, with the result that some time must elapse before the mail is finally cleared There is little doubt that all the parcels will be distributed many days before Christmas. All the mail is dealt with in the following order of priority: Letters, parcels, newspapers, and there are approximately 150 000 newspapers yet to be checked, sorted and cleared from the mailroom. In addition to this present mail, several other mails are due shortly, comprising 8600 bags of parcels, 1400 bags of newspapers and the usual batch of letters.,