London, Oct, 30.
Statistics of the world's total fair mails, which have just been complied, show that they now amount to over- 300,000 miles, 100 times what they were eighteen years ago.
in November 1919 the British Post 'OMmce sent ite Arst alremails to Paris. From the 250-mile route the service has grown to cover all the principal cities of Europe and the eastern section of the Empire. From Egypt the Empire fying-boats and acroplanes branch out to Indic, the [Straits, Hongkong and Australia; and [down through Africa to Durban the Cape, A. connecting route also serves West Africa, Judging by the recent. trans-Atlantic survey fights, It will not be long before Canada also linked up by alt with the rest of the Empire; and of course the Unite States.
Tu addition to mails, there has been remarkable increase latterly in the variety of trade samples sent by Jaeroplane about the world, these Including samples of silk, wool, dyes, cotton, tobacco, beans, carpets and even ' engineering and electrical machinery:
Stamps and Covers of Flying Mail The romance of the fying mail was well illustrated at the Annual Stamp Exhibition in London, when the exhibits included letters sent by every kind of transport, from the old. mail-coach to aeroplanes and rocket Great interest was displayed in ex: hibits of flown covers as carried by. pioneer aviators on—"blazing-the-frail" fights over the Atlantic and. across the Empire.
There is an, ever-growing demand among. collectors for exhibits and Include covers carried by such pioneer pilots as Hamel and Grahame: 'White, but also even earlier mementoes of those" days when, balloonists were taking up letters and dropping them from the' clouds.
As one can trace it in such an Jexhibition -as this, the story of the: aerial transport of letters has four: Jdistinet stages. "The first was the aerial carriage of letters by balloon, Then came mallvcarrying tests with ily-type dirigibles, notably those carried out In Germany with pre~ Zeppelins. Then—the power-driven, aeroplane now having appeared on, [the "world's stage—experiments of various kinds were made, just prior to the Great War, with marl-transport by heavier-than-air machines; and then towards the end of the war, and post-war years, came the establishment of alr-mail routes which have, degrees, extended their high-speed, services to' all parts of the world, Shadow Factories at Work The five new "shadow" factories of the aircraft industry, built up by the motor manufacturers ound Coventry, were thrown open to inspection by aeronautical journalists this week, and Bight mechanics and flight riggers, 19826 wireless operators, armour ers fand photographers and 12400 other trades, In addition about 4.840 boys fare undergoing training at Halton and Cranwell as aircraft apprentices and elsewhere 960 es boy entrants. The {otal strength of the force is now about 60.500, Meanwhile the squadrons have re: jeeived the new aeroplanes which were ordered "off the drawing board". when the expansion began, Among the new types already in service with {ull strength squadrons are the Bristol Blenheim, fastest bomber in service i8]in the world, the Vickers Wellesley, the geodetic monoplane, the Handley Page Harrow heavy bomber and the Fairey Battle single-engined bomber.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.