1956-11-29 — Page 4

13

FORCES MAIL: NEW CONCESSIONS

TROOPS CAN SEND LETTERS FREE

By GEORGE HOGAN

London

It is not just by chance that

thousand let these civil postmen are teamed Services'

uf

work

TWELVE are coming up to enter for the Servas eu The work of receiving, sorting, despatching and delivering the Army's vast mail is just another

the many

Jobs of

Royal En- the performed by

Ineers. Many of the mea they eventually Train for this work

office after the civil Join they leave the Army.

part of the Postal units are Corps of Royal Engineers

job

to Britain from the Forces about the in Egypt, and

are arriving same number there from home for dis tribution among the Army, Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. The Army postal unit on the spot ix working overtime running the Field Postal Service for all three Armed Services.

I

WAM

The nine men who compose it are Reserviste who were doing civilian Jobs until recalled the colours in August. They in-

Heutenant who clude working at the GPO at St Mar- tin le Grand, tear St Paul's Cathedra) in London.

Ber- geart who was in Ilford (Essex) Post Office, a corporni who វ civul life is a Post Office over- neer in Weymouth, and sappers who work for the Post Office in

End and London's West Dover.

21

POCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER

"But, darting, I think stu

why.

of

P.M.'s done sponders never in the history

the human transport has Juca Camat boen blocked to so mang bao teo hoa ho

long !!"

in

k

but seldom even

that Theirs

the headlines. totaches though they work efficiently day 11, day

year after year, Hil pussung "word from home" to troop in barracks and in hut- bivouacs and in tents, menia,

of the British wherever units Anny are serving

Mainya, In Muila, Cyprus, Korea, Libya, Kenya, Aden or Port Said, the Army Postal Ser- vice gets the letters through. So cfcient

was the organisation

the

for the Egyptian crisis that the inal almost went in with paratroops. It was certainly one

of the first things to follow their Hallant landing and consolidation. This was achieved only through and fore- the caroful planning

efforts that aight typical of the have built up the RE's postal

service.

POSTAL ORDERS

in

THE CHINA MAIL,

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1956.*

CONTINUING

·

THE PERSONAL ADVENTURE STORY OF THE YEAR

PETER TOWNSEND'S ONE-MAN JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD

stood the Chief of Police. Ho wus geniul and friendly, but ob viously worried. He wished. understood (how I don't know for neither of us could make out a word the other was saying), to conduct me to a more suitable hotel.

I protested. I was very tired and just about to retire. My protesta made no impression Luckily he was accompanied by Turkish officer who spoke some English. He took my side, somewhat to the chagrin of the Chief of Police,

After some minutes of heated conversation, animated by extra-

Peter Townsend loading and preparing the Land- Rover before leaving Teheran for Isfahan.

The Fairy-tale

miles away.

Innow.

2

but unmistakable, complete the journey next day, (0 EKTIVE at Teheran in the towering above the rest, ita peak

It was I covered with moW.

afternoon. majestic sight, even at that dis- Alas! before

we had [ar enough for the advanced surrounding range to unfold and reveal more of Ararat, darkness the whole fell and enveloped

But I was thankful for socne, that distant view.

But after an excellent lunch of chalo kebab-rice and meat- it was not long before 1 becamo obsessed with the idea of driv ing straight on to the capital.

After 25 miles tho ssphalt road gave way to a surface of

Clouds stone and gravel. dust again filled the interior of

the car.

1

along the Azerbaijan higiwway, could understand. announced giovanity that Tohoran was still 250 miles away. It wen then 11 o'clock. Shortly after midnight I met a camel caravan #waying through the darkness. I wondered how far they had to go.

I began to feel so sleepy that I was forced to stop. I rested my head on the suitcase beside mo and in a moment fell asleep. I slept for 20 minutes, and my sleep was full of ridiculous fleeing dreams. Then I roused myself and pushed on,

I slept twice again in this way before the road began nt last down off the high "I felt absolutely

whacked. Smoky grey

clouds hung over the glowing furnace of dawn. Out of the blaze roGo the man, 1 forged along the road to Teheran,

Jast and at

After many worst inquiries and directions 1 at last got out found the house of my friends.

The grueling Journey over at lust end I stepped out of and The car, Althy, unshaven,

Tough going

DI

to

ground. I was glad of the company of the Postans, but there were two drawbacks to travelling in con- voy. They advanced at a more lolsurely pace than I wished, and I drove continually in suffo- eating clouds of dust thrown up by the cars in front,

and

At the frontier got through The Customs formalities quickly but the Persians took ages, it was 11 p.m. before we again set off in convoy.

It was pilch dark, but I could see we were in rugged country,

Land

Where Snow Is Pink

1 clambered

The average time now for the mail between Britain and Port Soid is three to four days and some letters take only two days.

LEFT Malatya just gravel dragging at the wheels, vagant gestures, in which several But the Army Postal Service is

before sunrise next but the motor seemed uncertain concerned not only with letters.

All day long and was pulling badly, probably Stamps,

lay parcels, registrations

choked by dust and dirt. It was and postal orders are their busi-

was in the mountains a dusly road and the inside of This too, and the troops Egypt are sending home £1,000 and covered some 300 miles the car was full of it.

Erzurum. every before reaching worth of postal orders

It was hard work. day.

Now

for the Concession

The road was excellent, troops have just been announced by the War Office and troops but it coiled and twisted serving in Egypt may now send endlessly up and down the Furces lightweight jetters free of

gradients. IL was charge to the United Kingdom. steep

The War Office also announces marvellously engineered,

for clinging

to the special parcel concessions troops in Korea and Japan. The

safely

next of kin in the United King mountainside while the pre dam may send one postage free cipices fell away beneath.

not

run

Just before suntet I stopped I took out the jets and removed the air filter. They seemed sut- clean. I started off prisingly again, but suli the engine did happily. The petrol pump was labouring and the petrol did nol seem to reaching it freely.

Ready welcome

parcel up to three bs. weight At Kahu a bridge spanned sun by air to members of fer the Euphrates.

#

Huge rocks lay strewn about on alde of the road, and vach occasionally I heard the rushing

Was

from

miles TWENTY-FIVE

Tabriz the car turched un comfortably round

and had

4 bend, arrived at 9 am,

the knew hiippaned. I the wheelbrace and Jack, re- and moved the punctured tyre put on a spare,

This loss of precious time dis- couraged me.

The rest of the journey was to prove one of the toughest I have ever made.

the road looks On the map, straight and flat, In fact, it furned and twisted, now climb- ing tediously,

plunging now giddily downwards in a series of sickening bends. On and on It led, and I marvelled as i ad-

vanced inexorably

that rugged country.

DETOAS

It was a busy route and the tolled enormous lorries which elong it had deeply scarred its surface. Compared with them my car was a featherweight. It bounced and lurched and slithered over the loose gravel. Stones clattered and ricocholled against its underside.

of

THE TOUR GOES WATCH

ON

THE CHINA MAIL FOR

the

was

PETER TOWNSEND'S NEXT DISPATCH

to

covered in dust from hend foot. Five hundred miles lay between me and Khai, which I had left 24 hours ago.

I had an enormous breakfast, wonderful bath. The and a relief at being clean and

rem properly fed was indescribabla I made straight for my bed and lay there, insensible, till the late afternoon.

I was an exhausting bust- mess, urging the car along mile after mile, at a speed which at The a silent best was painfully slow. evidently

and the headlights gture clouds of dust were blinding Once I completely hairpin bend and went straight on, pulling up just in time on the edge of the steep embank- ment,

thank- sound of a mountain stream.

We passed through village which Maku, and it was clear that the

had leader of the convoy

of stopping. I was intention Ured and hungry, and kept

biscuits, going

more of the hotel guests joined the matter was setiled. I would stay put. fully into my humble bed.

Next morning my alarm woke The lights weren't me at 4.30. working so I dressed in the dark and felt my way downstairs.

Outside in the street a small

officials WETC already waiting. deputation of police and other They explained that an escort would have

to be arranged to accompany me as far as Horo- son, 40 miles away,

It was now just light enough for me to soe that one of the back tyres of my car was flat blaze of My heart set in

Bank. Those inst effulgent glory.

I now had two puncturod moments as the day eauded were fyrra. There

were two spare stationed

that I longed to wheels, but I could not risk the so wonderful lefi Korea or Japan, or who

Towards the end of the day, stay, but there still remained 400-mile journey to Tabriz with after October 17, 1850 the car became rallier Britain

sulky 50 miles to go before reaching no spare wheel at all. I would It may have been the loose for service there by Christmas.

have to get them repaired be fore leaving Erzarur.

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Erzurun.

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Luckily, the nice Turkish of- cer of the night before wan there. He proved to be a real the friend

and I shall not forget I dis- gave me. the help he cussed the situation with trim.

High up there in the moun- talas, as the dying embers the day cast a pink glow the snow which lay upon high tops, the solitude was comparable,

in

I took a last look und got back into the car, I drove on along the winding lonely road. felt very lonely and thought how nice it would be if some- there to share my

one was

thoughts.

I hurried down of the moun- lain side towards Erzurum.

Mount Ararat

лю

missed

а

At last we arrived at Khol, 11 was 3.30 in the morning, and

To Teheran the village was asleep. We tried krocking up two inns. One was

there THE moon, a slender crescent,

THE full up; from the other

Was set early and the night was came no response. There nothing for it but to sleep in dark. A little wind cut through the Tirus I spent my first

the air and i pulled on another curled up on night in Persia,

sweater and my shoepskin coat, the front seat of my car, In the In that

inhospitable unseen, mai street of Kli

the I slept for countryside,

Janeliness three hours before being waken- weighed heavily

CIT.

mysulf

on me

ed by the early stierfhes of the turned on the wireless now and but brought me little again populace of a Persian village.

uncurled

and comfort. Once I caught BOTTIC

dance and South American my

We breakfasted and for some moments in a cafe off eggs and crusty lulled by its rhythm. Persian bread.

straightened twisted limbs.

I set off ahead of the others for Tabriz. Teheran lay 500 niles away,

and I did not at that moment contemplate try ing to reach the capital in one

For Uhiree hours WE would not be possible to find hop, Tabriz was the first objec- anyone to repair the pune-

rattled over the story roads, tures before eight o'clock.

So und

arrived about midday. he led me off to the other hotel hot and exhausted. where I shaved and had excellent breakfast

I

1 then continued to the car I found my hotel up a muddy side-streol. I

and and set to work on the engine, entered mounted a dark stairway. The Before long a bearded mechante manager was filling in his books arrived and got down to mend- by

andlelight. He looked up at ing the punctured

Lyres, The bazaar was just opening in our smiled

street, but curious shoppers were by shooed away from the car the police,

Ino

Once more I felt conscious of the ready welcome 1 invariably found in Turkey. I was shown

It was just my room.

Large bed. the contain enough Outside a rather repulsive odour wafted lightly down the dimly Ht corridor.

10

"Buzbag"

an

As I bent over the engine,

a hand someone put

πω voice exclaimed: shoulder and a "Bonjour!"

I looked up. It was a Permian I had met with three of tris

friends of the Yugoslav-Greek

frontier. I was glad to see him, for we could go on in convey to Persia, the frontier and mo The journey was long and the would be road was lonely, and glad of some company.

ASKED for something to eat, The manager indicated that should go to a restaurani, but did not feel inclined. I decided to dine off the remains of the bongue I had opened for lunch. At Horosan we waved good. I fetched it from the car, con- bye to the escort, but there were cealed in a bag of apples, hoping still 150 miles to cover before frontier. to offend thereby mort

reaching the Persian manager'e feelings. I asked for At Agri we arrived just as the

the

a bottle of wine, but the garrison was beating retreat.

The crercent flag was slowly manager did not understand.

1

1

**Buzbag,'

4.3

sturdy in construction yet

1 Bald, reaticing lowered and in oddly named.

brand of street people stood Turkish wine I had already facing it.

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The rest of the convey An- nounced their intention of stay ing that night in Tabriz, I said I would push on another 100 miles or so that afternoon, stop the night Borowhare, and

music I was

I

ת!

P.8:1 have been in Teheran for a week-longer than I meant to be but I still have time hand owing to the days saved to mbe the by being forced Amb countries.

The direct road from Teheran through Meshed to Afghanistan is out of the question.

There were sarious

summer

foods

in

the and roads and bridges the route have been along washed away.

I shall therefore take the road to Isfahan and go southeast to I cross-the Zahidan, where

the frontier into Pakistan,

Then to Quetta, over frontier into Afghanistan, and and Kabul. so on to Kandahar From Kabul I shall go through, the Khyber Paws into Paldistan again, and go by way of Pesha- war and Latiore to Delhi.

The car has been serviced and

1

at have unpacked cleaned. completely and washed the dust weather everything. The off has been sunny and rather cool in the evening. have rather unwell, having fallen violim to a kind of 'fin which has laid low a number of people, But I have been very busy doing And one thing and another. strongly

this 121 by the time you read be well on my way ogaia,

World Copyright Reserved. production whole or strictly forbidden.)

1 imagined people dancing. would have given anything to have changed places with them for a while, instead of filling there alone, in the darkness of this cold Persian night, having the life nearly shaken out of me. The need which humans feel for the love and company another is doop and Irresisüble. That night was by

TO mennes the first time I had experienced it, but I felt it more than ever.

of

Over the whole length of the road from Tabriz to Teheran there was only one signpost,

Re- in part

tasted. He immediately dis- I wanted so much to see

and was appeared with my ten-kra note Mount Ararat, and in a few minutes was back patient to press on more swiftly, with a bottle of Kavaklidere, as the light was now beginning

to good little wine from Ankara,

I attacked the tongue using some 60 miles before we came

my jack-knife both as a carving to the mountain, whiet rises up knife and a fork I dined well to nearly 17,000ft, in the north

and felt ready for bed

I felt I should sleep in peace,

commotion

but suddenly there was a small

of the road near the frontier.

Coming round

a wide bend some way beyond Agri, the great mountain

WEB in the corridor and

a knock at my door, There

suddenly те vealed in the distance. It wee

Peter Townsend strolling through the bazaar in Tohežan,"

SUN, SLEEP, FRESH AIR ARE FADS

CHAPMAN PINCHER finds a doctor who debunks those healthy living ideas

#report

The

a might for fall

-There was no increase in- windows, And to prove his theory ho are bad for most people though hours sloep SHUT those

miss a meal (or have has examined each boller in they may upset a few individuals health is an old wives' tale. So ness during the war when few

tum in

is the "early to bed” story, to other with siruftive stomachs. {

people took holidays on

The benefit two in an hour), avoid the docion

holidays bring, is same is true of highly where -по avidence that apart from the pleasure, sunshine, burn the candle at both ends, do without a roof, that air from an open and

• FRESH AIR: There is no seasoned foods, cooled choose people who habitually sleep entirely mental, says De Todá

other meals wrongly holiday--AND YOU'LL BE window, is malthier than the air regarded su “indispestible.?? badly suffer any ill effecta in the Biodical World,

And it, in spite of all, you JUST AS HEALTHY.

provided they do not worry cling to the belief that ther

• SUNSHINE: Sunbathing is about the insomnia Itwolf. mart be SOME good in "holthy pleasant, but does not tome up w

living" prepare to receive** this the body or increase its remstance

in a stuiry room. It does not Belleve otherwise and you help to prevent adiments, are only fooling yourself, There is even scant support says Dr. John W. Todd, of for the view that 16 Mists in to lose except in care casesLIDAYS: Modica i, alimentation- Farnham Hospital; Surrey. recovery from tuberculoris, where people

Vitamin, D. He claims that all the popuEGULAR MEALS, pare lak", "Idone abont: "hesitky i′′ little ›'inedica), eridence that... » SLEEP: TDS

are deficient in evidence" is against the beller "30

that nummer holidays build up sily healthy life is better than your, rematador to Infections and the traditionally umbealthy - slay that help to keep you fit tirough the "this" là mainly; for paychológ elgik:) winfer+:

1