The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-07
Government Issues Full Dfrec-
lions to Folk at Home.
Mail, Improperly Addressed, to
$4,000 Is Now Delayed.
MILLION LETTERS EACH DAY
This Number Arrives In
France for American Force.
Follow Out New Rules of Ad
dresses Most Carefully.

Capt. Frank E. Frazier, U. S. A.,
assistant director of the American ex-
peditionary forces postal service at
Tours, France, has been sent to the
United States on a mission relative to
postal affairs. with authority to fur
nisf information heretofore. for mill
tary reasons, withheld from the postal
officials. The military authorities
found it necessary, in order to Sc
cure prompt delivery of soldiers mail,
to provide the military postal officers
in France with complete information
as to the location of troops. The mill
tary postal officers at the central post
office in France have now been at
forded access to the card index direc-
tory of the adjutant generals depart
ment, located in the same building;
and on his arrival in this, country
Captain Frazier furnished, under seal
of secrecy. to the postal officers. a
directory giving the location of troops
in France and a record of those on
the way. Orders have been issued to
send mail on every boat destined to
dock at any port in France organized
to receive mail. This, and the adop-
ton of a scheme of designation for
groups of unattached men sent from
the United States to replacement
camps in France. which Is recon-
mended by Captain Frazier. WILL it is
believed. go long way toward expe-
diting the delivery of letters to SOL
diers.
Improper Addresses.
= The mail of more than fifty thou
sand of our soldiers in Francois de-
layed, and perhaps cannot be deliv-
cred at all. The reason for this is
that letters for a greater number than
fifty thousand, in the aggregate, are
improperly or inadequately addressed.
Complaints covering these delays
are sufficient to give the public the
impression that the soldiers mail serv-
ice is bad. But besides the improper
addressing Of letters, which is woeful-
ly common. there are other reasons
for delay in the delivery of soldiers
mail which cannot be avoided by the
military postal service any more than
it could be when this service was con-
Quoted fy the postoffice department.
These delays affect relatively
small proportion of the mail, but the
number is sufficient to give rise to a
very general, if unjust, criticism of
the postal service.
Delays caused by military objection
to furnishing the civilian postal Off
Gals with information as to the loca-
ton of troops are now, in a measure.
cured by this information being given
the army officers directing the mail
service. Letters could not be 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 CT
william service.
But at times there is still delay to
the mail after it reaches port in
France. Some of these are absolute
ly unavoidable If the safety and well
fare of our troops are to be given first
consideration. Others can be avoided
and steps to that end which were
upon civil authorities have been or
are being taken.
Letters on Schedule Time.
Only in exceptional cases, and I'm
der circumstances which will be ex-
planned, does it take more than three
weeks for a properly addressed letter
to reach a soldier in France who is
attached to an organized unit OF the
army Most of the mail reaches Its
destination in less time than that. The
great mass of letters to and from the
Expeditionary Forces go and come on
schedule time.
Yet, exceptional circumstance may
delay a soldiers mail as much as two
or three months, or he may not get 1t
at all. In the extreme case where
there are several soldiers of the same
name 1t will be because his letters are
improperly addressed and he has fail
ed to correct the conditions by fur
nishing his proper address. There
are no delays. or at most none greater
than a few days, when the soldier Is
located with the organized forces and
the letter is properly addressed.
In view Of the duplication of names
in the American Expeditionary Forces,
the absence of any distinguishing
designation for groups of casual or
difficulty in the delivery of mail.
Thousands of soldiers are being sent
to France every month from this
country for replacement purposes.
They come from various canton-
ments-Pike, Meade, Humphreys,
designated simply Camp Pike August
Replacement Draft OF
some similar designation, and part of
that particular draft may be sent TO
one replacement camp in France and
part to another. Mail now forwarded
to these soldiers who have been scat
tered among organizationsat the front
mail''-goes 20 the central
postoffice at Tours and its distribu-
ton there is still further hampered by
being mixed up with the accurnu1a-
ton Of misdirected mail. 1t is esti-
mated that 100000 letters a month
were delayed from this cause. This
delay in delivery will not occur under
which have just been
made to have each replacement unit
of $50 men or less as it leaves camp
in the United States given a distinc-
of such unit will then be one. of $50