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Show uu WHY MAIL HAS BEEN DELAYED. Complaints have been pouring In to Postmaster General Burleson over the ! failure of the American soldiers in France to receive their lotters. The protests have been eo mary that Cnp-tain Cnp-tain F. E. Frazier, assistant director of tho American expeditionary forces postal service in Franco, has made this statement in a ietter to the Stand-crd: Stand-crd: The military authorities found it necessary, in order to secure, prompt delivery of soldiers' mail, to provide the military postal officers in France with complete information as to the location of troops. The military postal officers at the central r-'Jstcffice in France hare now beer, afforded access ac-cess to tho card-indox directory of the. ac'vUtanl general's department, locat it in tho F.vuJe building: and on his irrlval in ihL countr.' Captain FruJer j f.'rnisJied. under Sect of secrecy, to khn postal officers, a 0i '.v-roiv ylvinii the location of troops in France and a record of those on the way. Orders have been issued to send mail on every eve-ry boat destined to dock at any port in France organized to receive mail. This, and tho adoption of a scheme of designation for groups of unattached unat-tached men sent from the United States to replacement camps in France, which is recommended by Captain Frazier, will, it is believed, go a long way toward expediting the delivery de-livery of letters to soldiers. The mail of more than fifty thousand thou-sand of our soldiers in France is delayed, de-layed, and perhaps cannot be delivered deliv-ered at all. The reason for this is that letters for a greater number than fifty thousand, in tho aggregate, are improperly and inadequately addressed. ad-dressed. Complaints covering these delays are sufficient to give the public the impression that the soldiers' mail service is bad. But besides the improper im-proper addressing of letters, which is . woefully common, there are other reasons rea-sons for delay in the delivery, of soldier's sol-dier's mail which cannot be avoided by the military postal service any more than it could be when this serv-ico serv-ico was conducted by the postoffico department. These delays affect a relatively small proportion of the mail, but the number is sufficient to give rise to a very general, if unjust, criticism of tho postal service. Delays caused by military objection to furnishing the civilian postal officials offi-cials with information as to the location loca-tion of troops are now, in a measure, cured by this information being given the army officers directing the mail service. Letters could not be promptly prompt-ly delivered -without knowledge as to where they were to be sent. Military officials are also provided now with transportation facilities which were not provided by the army for the civilian civi-lian service. But at times there is still delay to the mail after it reaches port in France. Some of those are absolutely absolute-ly unavoidable if the safety and welfare wel-fare of our troops are to be given first consideration. Others can be avoided, avoid-ed, and steps to that end which were impossible under military restrictions upon civil authorities have been or are being taken. Delays in the delivery of mall -which, cannot be avoided are liable to occur at any time during a period of great activity and secret movement of troops. Where the success of a troop movement on the front depends upon secrecy, mail cannot be sent to members mem-bers of a mobile force until they are established at the selected destination. destina-tion. Whatever delay is involved in this, whether 24 hoursor several days, must bo accepted as a mitary necessity. neces-sity. The same is true when shipments ship-ments of supplies, munitions, fresh meat, etc., are such as to make an extraordinary demand upon transportation transpor-tation facilities from the French ports. Such delays, however, are but for a few days at most. When a divisional divi-sional postoffico is moved in connection connec-tion with a big troop movement great secrecy has to be exercised. No word, even to the army postal authorities, is permitted concerning the secret troop movement until the troops have been located permanently enough to permit the sending of mail. Under these conditions a week's delay In the delivery of mail is possible. |