§ Mr. Piratinasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air whether he is aware that the delivery of mails to 36 S.P., R.A.F., S.E.A.A.F., has been delayed; that all mails are delivered by the B.O.A.C.; and whether he will be prepared to arrange for R.A.F. aeroplanes to supplement the B.O.A.C. service, where necessary, to secure the speedy delivery of mails.
§ Mr. StracheyAirmail to all the Services in the Far East has recently been delayed up to two or three days because of bad weather and of some difficulties with the aircraft in use, which are all in Transport Command. We are now putting these mails on to another Transport Command service. They should not take more than between five and nine days to deliver, depending on the weather and on the distances of units from the main distribution centres. It will, of course, take longer to deal with the Christmas mail which travels by air. It has already been announced that 7th December was the last date for posting this mail.