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Show It's Time to Send Your Presents to Servicemen; 'Christmas Mail Month' Is Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 Privilege Granted On Overseas Gifts During This Period The volume of Christmas mail going overseas to men and women in the armed forces this year will reach a new high, the office of war information in-formation predicts. Approximately 33,000 uniformed uni-formed men and women in the army and navy postal services serv-ices are preparing for their biggest job that of moving an estimated 70,000,000 packages pack-ages of Christmas presents (three times as many as last year) to the military men and women overseas. Army postal officers are preparing prepar-ing their organization to move about twice as many Christmas parcels as were handled In 1943, when 20,000,-000 20,000,-000 holiday packages were sent abroad. The navy mail service expects nearly four times the volume of gifts handled In 1943 through fleet post offices In New York and San Francisco. Fran-cisco. A total of 7,480,000 packages went through the fleet post offices last year, 3,480,000 of them to advanced ad-vanced bases or ships at sea and 4,000,000 to ships putting in at American Amer-ican ports. The service postal organizations can handle this enormous volume more easily with a little assistance from friends and relatives of soldiers sol-diers and sailors. In 1943, the army post office transmitted more than 20 million holiday packages and an additional ad-ditional 75 million to 100 million pieces of miscellaneous mail. The navy moved approximately S.480,000 parcels overseas last Christmas and approximately four million packages to personnel on Bhore stations in the United States, and more than 80 million letters and Christmas cards during the Christmas mail period last year. The army and navy Intend to make every effort to deliver every Christmas gift overseas on time and Intact. But a sailor will not be cheered if the gift he receives from his mother for example: an expensive expen-sive wrlstwatch proves to have been ruined because it was completely com-pletely buried in a box of cookies that have crumbled in transit, the Davy said. Distances, heat, cold, sand, dampness, damp-ness, fleet or combat operations, and the fortunes of war are hazards that complicate the delivery of all mail overseas, even without the Christmas rush. The only factor in Christmas gift delivery over which the sender has control is the type and condition of the parcel when it leaves his hands, the army and navy emphasized. Mail Regulations. 1. Christmas mail month will comprise com-prise the 30-day period from September Sep-tember 15 to October 15, 1944, for all those in the armed services overseas. over-seas. This period is the only time during dur-ing which packages may be sent to soldiers overseas without a specific written request from the soldier or without an APO cancellation. Only one package may be sent by Packages get rough handling all along the way, and unless they are securely wrapped and tied, they may be damaged in transit. Here-Is Here-Is a scene in the New York postoffice, showing how busy sorters toss parcels into the hand-trucks. The big pile in the rear consists of packages that are coming undone the string working off, or the wrapping loose. By the time your gifts have made the long trip in a mail sack, they have been subjected to a lot of bouncing around on the railroad and boat. The last stage may be made in a jeep or airplane. or on behalf of the same person or concern to or for the same soldier la one week during this month. 2. Mark the package "Christmas Parcel," using a label that does not resemble a postage mark or stamp. 3. The package must weigh not more than five pounds, wrapped, and must be no longer than 15 f V T ---Say -.- - tr " i if I Whenever the presents arrive is Christmas to soldiers across the sea. Sometimes the army and navy postal services deliver the goods sooner than expected, as happened last year in Italy, when packages from home arrived late in November. The boys opened them up at once, since they didn't know what they'd be doing or where they'd be on Christmas Day. It's safest to mail early, however, because unforeseen delays can come along any time. Inches in length and 36 inches in length and girth combined. The army recommends that the package container be a box of metal, wood, or solid doublefaccd, corrugated fiberboard, reinforced with strong gummed paper tape or tied with strong twine or both. Standardized boxes for mailing Christmas gifts to military personnel person-nel overseas will probably be on the market by September 1, the War Production board reported. Approximately Approxi-mately 16,000,000 special applications applica-tions for the purchase by retailers and box jobbers of these boxes have been filed with WPB. WPB said that the standard boxes are to be manufactured of 175-pound 175-pound tested corrugated paper-board, paper-board, 12 by 6 by 4 inches, in regulation slotted carton style with taped manufacturers' joints. The post office department has recommended recom-mended that gummed flaps be supplied sup-plied with the boxes for sealing the parcels, WPB reported. Blanks for address and return address ad-dress will appear on the panels of the box, also the statement "this box to be used only for sending merchandise to a member of the armed forces outside the United States." 4. Address the package completely complete-ly and legibly. Print the address so that it will not run, streak, smudge or fade. Place an additional copy of the address and return address inside the package, so that if it comes apart, or the wrapper is torn, soiled, or lost, the additional copy may be used. Do not use gummed labels for addressing. The army and navy point out that they know what not to send overseas over-seas for Christmas, on the basis of past experience. But what to send is another thing altogether. In general, gen-eral, soldiers and sailors and others oth-ers like gifts that are unobtainable where they are and remind them with special significance of home. What Not to Send. The services advise generally against sending articles that may be obtained by sailors in ships' service serv-ice stores, or by soldiers in post ex changes. But soap, for example, which is available in most post exchanges, ex-changes, is a valued gift, particularly particu-larly for soldiers on the move, for in advancing they sometimes outdistance out-distance for hours or days even mobile mo-bile post exchanges. Perishable foods, intoxicants, weapons, poisons and inflammables. including matches and lighter fluids, are taboo and will not be accepted for mailing overseas. A navy postal officer stationed overseas wrote: "During the Christmas Christ-mas rush we kept a considerable force of men busy rewrapping parcels par-cels and salvaging everything fit for forwarding. A very great service could be rendered to us out here if the widest possible publicity could be given to these matters. "The people should be warned not to send liquids of any kind. They should use every possible precaution in packing powder of any kind. Fruit is not only dangerous to their own mail, but it causes serious damage dam-age to the other fellow's mail. Warn them about candy melting, fruit, cakes and cookies crumble and decay. de-cay. . "Above all the fact should be stressed that mail sacks can be baked in the hot sun and drenched in transit, all in the same day." The navy has found that unsuitable unsuit-able gifts include: leather goods (these mold in the tropics) ; chocolates choco-lates (these melt) ; cigarettes (obtainable (ob-tainable more cheaply In ships' stores) ; cameras (forbidden) ; electrical elec-trical equipment (there may be no electricity available) ; food, unless tinned; liquor; clothing, unless requested. re-quested. Fragile articles and soft candies and pastries are poor gifts for obvious ob-vious reasons, the army reported. Gifts Poorly Wrapped. The army cautioned that boxes of miscellaneous gifts should be packed carefully. Razor blades, for example, require extra wrapping. Numerous cases have been recorded re-corded of improperly wrapped razor blades working through packages. In 1943, approximately 15 per cent of the Christmas mail, handled by the navy was delayed in transit because be-cause of incorrect or incomplete addressing, the navy reported. One navy postal officer wrote from the Pacific theater: "It needs no considerable stretch of your imagination to understand how mail looks after it has been . shipped for thousands of miles by water, then worked and shipped again, reworked and reshipped until' un-til' it arrives at a Fleet Post office for directory service. By this time, any of the parcel post that was at all inclined to be perishable is thoroughly thor-oughly decomposed, causing damage dam-age to mails adjacent. "Only today we dumped up a sack containing the contents of a parcel which had come entirely apart. There were rotten apples, decayed oranges, melted candy and stale cake crumbs throughout the entire sack. This happens all too frequently. fre-quently. "A great deal of it was originally poorly wrapped. Many parcels have sticker addresses. The sacks may have become wet in transit, causing caus-ing the labels to come off. Frequently Fre-quently these stickers have been hurriedly slapped on, leaving tiny air pockets beneath them. Friction in transit causes these to wear off in spots. All too often addresses are in pencil, or, if in ink, the ink has become wet and illegible." Again this year soldiers overseas will be able to select gifts for the folks back home from the mail order or-der catalogue operated by the army exchange service, special services division. Listed gifts include: men's toiletries, haberdashery, leather goods, luggage, games, including playing cards, books, magazine subscriptions, sub-scriptions, dolls, toys, doll dishes, stuffed animals, smokers' supplies, candy, perfumes, cosmetics and lingerie. |
