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Show Soldiers Mail Delay HBMeM"MaaBlBiSBBBBBBias - Letters addressed to our soldiers abroad are despatched des-patched by the Post 'Office Department, so it asserts, without avoidable delay. There is of course necessary delay nowadays. Before the war mail boats went to Europe Eur-ope in from five to ten days, but now many boats carrying carry-ing the mail go with convoy, and that often delays the trip to a fortnight, or even longer. This, however does not excuse the non-delivery of fetters which have already arrived in Europe. The distribution and handling of the soldiers' mail abroad is now under the charge of the War Department A friend of The' Outlook who recently returned re-turned from France reported'that, so far as he could see, there was about one nostal aorent to everv twelve thous and soldiers. This might explain some of the delay in receiving mail reported in the United States Senate on August 1 by Mr. Johnson, of California. We infer that he spoke of his son in saying: When a boy over there, three thousand miles from home, finds day .after daythat there is no mail for him, even though the mail comes in and letters have been written to him, itiis the cruelist thing you can do to that lad. I speak from personal experience with at least one soldier in France. I say to "you that he did not receive re-ceive a single letter in a month from his people, yet they wrote to him four times a week. He cabled in distress to know what had happened to his people at home. I say to you that the letters that passed between us are numbered. He received one in six of mine. I received one in four of his. That has been the situation sit-uation since last March. This elicited a number of confirmatory letters to Senator Sen-ator Johnson, which on August 5 he read to the Senate. A letter from Pennsylvania said that a soldier had left Newport News on May 8, since which date five letters per week had been mailed to him, and yet he had received but six letters. A letter from South Carolina reported a soldier as sailing early in May, and yet on July 12 he was still waiting for a letter, though his family had written writ-ten regularly. Another letter stated that sixty letters had been forwarded to a soldieFm a Massachusetts regiment regi-ment since March, and yet by June 15, two of them liad been received. A letter from West Virginia reported no answers at all to letters written and asks: "Where does this undelivered mail go to? If not delivered, why does it not come back to the writer, as it is always sent in return re-turn envelopes?" There were other similar letters. Mr. Otto Kahn, who, though born in Germany, is a true American patriot, upon his recent return from France wrote to Senator Johnson as follows: No one who has not been with our Army abroad can appreciate what it means to those splendid fellows, fel-lows, uncomplaining as they are, under any and all unavoidable hardships and privations, to receive letters let-ters from home, and to feel that their own letters reach their destination with reasonable promptness and regularity. ; - The ever-present feeling of the long distance separating sep-arating them from home is perhaps the one which is hardest for them to get accustomed to and to over- come. It has been made touchingly manifest to me in many instances. No remedy is more efficacious against what the Germans call Heinweh (there is no equally descriptive word in the English language the literal translation being "ache for home") than frequent and reasonably speedy intercourse by letter. let-ter. Our boys are acting and behaving so magnificently magnifi-cently that the very least we can do is to spare them avoidable hardships and heartburnings. We trust that the War Department has already speeded speed-ed up the work of sparing these additional and unavoidable unavoid-able hardships and heartburnings. The Outlook. . |