§ Mr. Daggarasked the Postmaster General whether he is aware that considerable anxiety is felt by sons and husbands in His Majesty's Forces, now serving in the Middle East, because they are not receiving any letters from their homes, although their communications are received; and will he take some action that will remove the cause of such anxiety?
Mr. ChapmanYes, Sir. My right hon. Friend is fully aware of these delays which are due partly to the interruption of the normal routes to the Army base post office concerned, and partly to the distance units are often stationed from that base under conditions of active warfare. The matter is one which receives constant examination with the other Departments concerned, and every channel of transit is used. A special postcard service for transmission by air all the way to the base, at a charge of 3d., was begun on 2nd April last. Up to 23rd June over one million of these cards had been received at the base. The time of transmission from this country to the base has varied from 7 to 19 days. The airgraph service is already operating from the60W Middle East base to this country taking about 10 days in transit and my right hon. Friend hopes that a similar outward service from this country to troops in the Middle East will be inaugurated within a few weeks.