The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government departmentBennett, Edward
History
The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government department
Bennett, Edward
Postal service -- Great Britain -- History
Some idea of the postal work conducted by the Post Office Corps during
the war may be gathered from the fact that in one week the number of
letters sent from London for the seat of war was 313,416, and the mail
from the Army Post Office, which reached London about the same time,
contained 108,150 letters and registered articles. The parcels sent to
the troops reached very high figures, amounting in one week to 19,019.
“The undelivered postal packet” of the Army Post Office is of course a
large item in the day's work. It is pitiful to look at the contents of
the bags returned. The envelopes are torn and dirty, some of the letters
have lost their covering, thus making the delivery hopeless, while
others have written across them, “Killed in Action,” “Missing,” or “Gone
Home.”
Few people have any idea of the enormous area of South Africa which was
covered by our military operations. By the time mails despatched from
Capetown reached their destination the addressees had frequently changed
their station, and the letters had to undergo a long course of
re-direction.
Mr. H. C. Shelley, the war correspondent of the _Westminster Gazette_,
bore eloquent testimony to the work of the Post Office during the war.
“Both at Capetown and in the field I had many opportunities of watching
the Army Post Office Corps at work. Officers and men alike were always
alert in the discharge of their duties, and their courtesy was
unfailing. No trouble was ever too great for them to take: their sole
concern was that those longed-for letters from home might reach the
expectant owners as quickly as possible. At Modder River the post office
was a miserable room in which you could not have swung your arm, much
less your arm and a cat, but in that wretched apartment the heroes of
the Postal Corps kept cheerfully to their work with unflagging zeal.”
As regards the navy, each ship of his Majesty's fleet has a post office
to itself in charge of some duly appointed officer. Stamps and postal
orders are on sale, and a special bag is provided on board for the
posting of correspondence.
When the ships are in home waters the rates of postage to be prepaid are
the same as those prevailing in the inland service of the United
Kingdom, but in the cases of ships stationed abroad the postage home is
1d. for letters, 1d. each for postcards, and ½d. per 2 oz. for printed
matter. As long as the correspondence is posted on board the ships in
the special bag provided for the purpose these rates apply, and British
stamps are valid for the prepayment of the postage even though the ships
may be in the harbour of a foreign country. The ship's bags are sealed
and landed at the first convenient port, or transferred to the first
likely ship that is met, for conveyance to destination. In the outward
direction a special bag for each ship is made up in the General Post
Office in London, and is despatched under seal at the first available
opportunity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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