Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-09

assistant director of the American Ex-
,ed,tionarv Forces Postal Service at
Tours. France, has been sent To the
United States on MISSION relative To
postal affairs. with authority TO furnish
information heretofore, for military rea-
sons, withheld from the postal officials
The military authorities found IT neces-
sarv. IN order To secure prompt delivery of
soldiers mail. to provide the military
nostal officers in France with complete
information as TO the location of troops.
The military postal officers at the central
most office In France have now been ai
fordcd access TO the card-index directory
of the Adjutant Generals department,
located in the same building; and on his
arrival IN this country Captain Frazier
furnished, under seal OF secrecy, to the
rnstal officers directory giving the loca-
ton of troops in France and n record of
those on the way. Orders have been issued
70 send mail on every boat destined to
dock at any port In Franco organized TO
receive mail.
This. and the adoption of scheme of
designation for groups OF unattached men
sent from the United States to replace
ment camrs in France, which is recon-
mended by Captain Frazier, will, 1t Is
believed 20 long WAY toward cxpeditIng
the delivery of letters to soldiers
THE GREAT CAUSE OF DELAY.
The mail of more than $4,000 of our
soldi ers In France Is delayed. and per
hans cannot be delivered Mt all The rea-
son for tins is that letters for greater
number than 10000 in the aggregate are
improperly or inadequately addressed
Complaints covering these DELAYS arc
sufficient to give the public the impression
that the soldiers mail service is bad. But
beside. the improper addressing Of letters
which is woefullv common. there arc
other reasons for DELAY IN tho delivery ot
soldiers mail which cannot he avoided
bv the military postal service any more
than it could be when tins service was
conducted hv the Post Office Department
These DELAYS affect relatively small
proportion of the mail, hut the number IS
sufficient 20 give rise 10 very general. It
unjust. criticism Of the postal service.
DELAYS caused by military objection 10
furnishing the civilian postal officials
with information az to the location ot
troons arc now, in a measure, cured by
this information being gwen the army
officers directing the mail service Let
tiers could not he promptly delivered
without knowledge as 10 where they were
10 he sent Military officials are also pro-
yided now with transportation facilities
which were not provided by the army for
the civilian service.
SOME UNAVOIDABLE DELAYS.
But at times there Is still delay 10 the
mail after II reaches port In France.
Some Of these are absolutely unavoidable
# the safety and welfare Of our troops arc
to be gwen first consideration. Others
can be avoided, and steps 10 that end.
which were impossible under military re-
stnctions upon civil authorities have
been or are being taken.
Only in exceptional cases, and under
circumstances which will be explained,
does IL take more than three weeks for a
properly addressed letter TO reach
soldier in Franco, who Is attached to an
organized unit of the army Mcst of the
mail reaches its destination In less time
than that The great mass of letters to
and from the Eypeditlonary Forces 60
and come on scheduled time
Yet. exceptional circumstances NAV Dc
Iav a soldiers mail as much as two or
three months, or he may not get Ii at all
In the extreme cases where there arc
several soldiers of the same name, il will
be because his letters are improperly
addressed and he has failed TO correct
the conditions by furnishing his proper
address. There are no delays, or at most
none greater than a few DAYS. when the
and the letter Is properly addressed,
DUPLICATION OF NAMES.
In view Of the duplication of names in
the American ExEstlItIonary Forces the
absence of any distinguishing designation
for groups Of casual or replacement men
has been a source of difficulty IN the de-
livery Of mail. Thousands of soldiers are
being sent 10 France every monty from
~.
| They come from various cantOnments-
Pike, Meade, Humphreys. Lewis and
elsewhere-and are usually designated
simply Camp Pike August Automatic
Replacement Draft, or some similar
designation, and part Of that particular
draft may be sent to one replacement
camp IN France and part 10 another
Mail now forwarded to these soldiers
uho have been scattered among organ
izatlons at the front-'fi fioaters mail -
goes to the central post office ut Tours
and its distribution there Is still further
hampered by being mixed up with the
the accumulation Of mlsdirected mail
1t is estimated that 100000 letters q
month were delayed from this cause
This delay in delivery will not occur
under arrangements which have jlst
been made to have each replacement unit
of $50 men or less as II leaves camp IN the
United states gwen a distinctive com
pany number winch it will retain until
II reaches 3 replacement camp IN France
Every member OF such unit will then be
one OF go men instead OF one Of one and
half million men. The John Jones Of the
small unit will be easily located
At each replacement camp in France. 8
directory section of the army postofhce
has been established. and mail for re-
placement soldier will hereafter follow
hun To the unit TO which he is sent from
that camp, the clerks in the directory
section Of the postoffice using the card
records of the statistical division Of the
camp commander. It still rests with the
soldier to Immediately notify his cor
respondents as to his correct address,
and with the various cantonments in the
United States TO see that mail addressed
TO him at the cantonment is properly
endorsed for forwarding 10 France II is
equally important for the soldier to notify
his correspondents Immediately upon his
assignment TO a definite unit In France
SECRET TROOP MOVES CAUSE DELAY
Delays IN the delivery of mail which
cannot be avoided are liable to occur al
any time during period of great activity