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.
A book on the Post Office would not be complete without some reference to the boy messengers of the Department. They are certainly one of its activities. They have been called the aristocracy of the messenger world, for the State is in a position to pick and choose its servants. They are almost as well known to the public as the postmen.
No boy is accepted unless he has passed the seventh standard at school, and every candidate has to provide a satisfactory certificate of health from “his own medical attendant.” A boy of fourteen must also be over 4 feet 8 inches in height. In London the boys usually start at 7s. a week, rising 1s. a week annually to 11s.
The Post Office messenger certainly receives an excellent training in good habits, and the discipline he undergoes is excellent for him. He is required to be alert and resourceful, though perhaps he does not have the same opportunities for varied experience as the district messenger boy. No doubt his training is useful also for outside employment if he leaves the Service at the end of his time, but the boys' special qualifications are for Post Office service.