Gen!

– Magazine of –

No. 33 (RAF) Service Flying Training School,
Carberry, Manitoba

Christmas 1942

This issue was sourced from the Website, Canadiana.ca, and their collection of microfilms of the RCAF Daily Diaries.

THIS IS YOUR POST OFFICE

We have been asked by the editors of “Gen” for a short resume of the activities of your camp Post Office. This Military Post Office was officially opened by the Canadian Postal Corps on May 27th of this year and is designated “Carberry M.P.O. 1007.”

The first and foremost interest of the camp in the section is of course in the incoming mail. “Any English in?” is an oft repeated question. But, as so many think, our only worry is not the incoming mail. “What about the outgoing?”

It is as big a problem. The stamps on every letter must be cancelled and the letter date-stamped by hand, as we are not fortunate enough to have an electric cancelling machine. These letters are then sorted to various designations, labelled, and tied into bundles before being put into the mail bag.

Anything from one thousand to fifteen hundred letters are dispatched daily, all this takes time. Airgraphs leave the station at a rate of two hundred a day. The service is available to most of the Empire and is a fast way of communication. We especially recommend it these days, when the transatlantic airplane service is so congested with vital war supplies, that it is sometimes impossible to find room for ordinary airmail letters.

Just how much shipping space can be saved by use of Airgraph can be seen by a Daily Mirror report that recently one plane bound for the Middle East carried 900 rolls of film, a total of one and one-half million Airgraphs. Lately the service has taken three weeks from the Middle East, while Airgraphs have been noticed from India in a month. One of the busiest parts of the M.P.O. is the Savings Bank Division, which handles thousands of dollars every month in several hundred accounts. Each deposit is a direct boost to the war effort as the money is used by the government to meet current expenses.

Apart from this service, there is every service available that can be had at any civilian Post Office. Money Order and Postal Note business is transacted, as well as a complete C.O.D. service. War Savings Stamps and Certificates are on hand for the crafty saver. A complete record of every man on the station is kept by an alphabetical card index system. When clearance papers are presented, the new address is recorded on the card, and the card is transferred to another file for the re-direction of mail. All letters are daily checked against the “on” file and ‘“off’ station file and re-directed if necessary. Some days several hundred letters are re-directed, so rest assured men, your mail will follow you when you are posted. If the following points are taken into consideration, you will be helping us to give you better service.

1. Do not fold Airgraphs or fasten them with cellophane tape or gummed paper.
2. Do not place any stickers other than “Airmail” on the face of your envelopes.
3. Do not use “Special Delivery” stamps for mail not intended for special delivery. Likewise do not use airmail stamps for mail matter not intended for airmail.