"All Is Well"
Those who have found their letters taking ten days for the trip from Tsingtao to Shanghai will gaze with envy at the record of a local resident who posted a letter to a friend in Pitcairn Island and had it delivered within exactly 35 days. And what is more, he got a reply within 75 days of posting his letter; this should constitute a world record of some sort, for it normally takes over four months for a reply to be received.
"All is well at Pitcairn Island, Shgnghai residents may be glad to learn, According to "our Pitealrn correspondent," Mr. Edgar Christian, a direct descendant of the mutineers of HAMS. Bounty, is at present Chief Magistrate. In his letter he enclosed two photographs, one of the exact spot where the famous British ship was run ashore—complete with "x marks the spof"—and the other of the island's Community Bell, which summons the islanders for various purposes.
To return to the correspondence. The Shanghai resident's letter went by ordinary steamer routes to Australia and just caught the mail leaving for New Zealand and Pitcairn Island, which is approximately 11,000 miles from Shanghai.
One can well imagine with what delight the Pitcairn correspondent fell on the letter and devoured its contents. A month and ten days later, and his reply, also luckily just catching the various schedules, was received in Shanghai, the post-mark Pitcairn" testifying to its place of origin.
1t is, of course, possible that, with luck, this record of 75 days for the "round-trip" could be bettered providing air-mails were used for the Shanghai-Australia and Australia Shanghai portion of the journey; if the air-mails were just right and the ship-schedules just right, it is possible the "record" might be lowered to, say, 50 days—but until he chooses to break the record himself, the Shanghai resident's time of 75 days for the round trip will hold—he is probably the only person in Shanghai with a correspondent on Pitcairn Island!
Were it not for the fact that Pitcairn Island was a British possession, it might be possible for the Shanghai resident actually to speak to his friend by amateur radio phone, for there are a number of Shanghai amateurs who would be glad to coplane
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.