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The Kia ora coo-ee : the magazine for the ANZACS in the Middle East, 1918

The Postal System

The Postal System.

A Light Horseman writes discussing the card system now in vogue at the Australian Base Post Office, Kantara, and complaining of delay in the delivery of mail. "In my opinion", he says, "a card system would be of great advantage, and to the boys' satisfaction, if each Regiment were represented at the A. B. P. O., having each member of the respective Regiments carded, and records kept by the representatives individually. A very small percentage will suffer by delay if the Regimental orderlies are reinstated." We have made inquiries and the position, from official statements, is as follows:-The card system, being a complete record of the A. I. F. in Egypt, has not yet had time to become properly established or fairly tested, one big mail only having been dealt with since it was introduced here. The delay involved in delivery of the mail in question was about 48 hours; the authorities, however, are confident that, when the system is in smooth running order, there will be little or no delay, while all men transferred from their original to some other unit, will receive their mail more expeditiously loan would have been the case under the old system. The mail is not held up till all has been checked, but portions are despatched daily. The system at Kantara is similar to that in use at the Australian B. P. O.. London, which has proved highly successful. In London it was found, under the old system, that 49 per cent of the mail received had to be redirected; and, therefore, it was decided to keep records and run the mails against these before despatch to the Field. The delay to last mail was caused by the fact that it had to be alphabetically sorted before being run against records. A cable has been sent to the Postal authorities in Australia, asking that the mail be sorted alphabetically there; and when this is carried out, there should be no delay at this end. With regard to the representatives at the A. B. P. O., Kamara, these men have not been transferred back to their units, but are still employed on mail redirection work, etc., at the A. B. P. O.