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CHAPTER V
AIR MAIL
IMPERIAL AIRWAYS are the carriers of H.M.'s Air Mails,
an honour that entails the maintenance of the highest
attainable standard of punctuality and efficiency.
The volume of air mail handled by Imperial Airways for
overseas has grown from one and a half million letters and packages in 1924 to many, many millions in 1931, and the
figure is always mounting.
Practically all letters, postcards, packages and parcels that
are suitable for land postage are accepted by post offices for
dispatch by Air Mail at a cost that compares favourably with
surface rates when the tremendous saving of time is taken
into consideration.
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The air transport of goods is spoken of in Chapter VI, but here I refer to letters and parcel post only.
Many commercial samples come within this latter category, and the advantage of laying samples
before overseas customers, days or even weeks before those of rival firms arrive by ordinary surface
transport is too obvious to labour here. Equally you can send by air all sorts of perishable eatables
that would not remain fresh during land transport, to your friends and relatives abroad.
What about Cousin Bob in Kenya? Why not send him a ripe Stilton or some pâté de foie gras by Air
Mail? Let him be the first man in the world to eat in Nairobi beautiful whortleberries gathered on
fair Exmoor (we said Exmoor not Dartmoor) - and how he will enjoy them, poor chap!
And then, of course, there is Cynthia's new baby at Karachi. Don't just cable the usual
congratulations; there is far more cachet about an Air Mail letter written in Sussex last Friday,
and brought into the bungalow by the Khitmatgar on the following Friday afternoon!
Another point: parcels containing anything fragile are far better sent by air. They receive more
gentle treatment; this is well demonstrated by the fact I draw attention to in the chapter on freight -
namely, that big consignments of delicate glass instruments and wireless valves are constantly being
carried by Imperial Airways in plain cardboard boxes.
You can obtain full Air Mail details by asking at any post office in Great Britain for their official
blue and white folder called 'Air Mail' (its personal friends call it P.635G in the hail-fellow-well-met
manner of the Stationery Office). It tells you everything and is admirably clear. Or you can call up
the G.P.O. Air Mail enquiries by ringing National 7152 between 9 A.M. and 6 P.M. But just to give
you 'a slight impression,' as the music-hall artistes used to say, I quote the following facts:
LETTERS BY AIR
ANY LETTERS, postcards, papers, samples, and so on, acceptable for ordinary post will be taken
by post offices for Air Mail. They can be registered if desired to any destination at Imperial Airway
rates, but insurance is limited to letters, etc., addressed to Holland or Switzerland.
THE BLUE LABEL
A SPECIAL blue label, obtainable from post offices, should be fixed to each Air Mail packet; you
can, if you like, simply write 'By Air Mail' on the envelope and blow the blue label, but the G.P.O.
will not be responsible for delays if you do. Besides, Air Mail packages enjoy very quick passages at
the Customs Houses in most countries, and this advantage may be lost if the blue label be not there
to tell the tale.
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