Links to 2013 reports from the Times of India, the Associated Press, and the Christian Science Monitor; other, more recent reports are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Then, links to images of telegrams, followed by texts of two. (MEDIA 7-5-25 is HERE, or scroll down. GAZA, LEBANON, SYRIA, WEST BANK and UKRAINE entries for this date are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE, or scroll up.)
– – –
FROM JULY 14, 2013 A final farewell to the ‘telegram,’ by Anjana Vaswani | Mumbai Mirror / The Times of India It’s a sodden, sticky day — the sort that washes away all hope from the hearts of rain-soaked pedestrians. But the mood inside the Central Telegraph Office at Flora Fountain . . . READ MORE . . .
– – –
FROM JULY 15, 2013 Stop … India sends its last telegram, by Nirmala George | AP NEW DELHI — Hundreds of people thronged the 75 telegraph offices remaining in India on Sunday to send their last telegrams to friends or family as a keepsake. The day marked the end of service for the medium of communication after 160 or more years. READ MORE . . .
– – –
FROM JULY 15, 2013 India bids farewell to state-run telegram service after 163 years. Stop. by Ryan Lenora Brown | The Christian Science Monitor It was a scene that India hadn’t witnessed for decades: lines stretching around the block, hundreds deep, of customers waiting to send a telegram. But as the state-run telecommunications . . . READ MORE . . .
– – –
Old telegraphed messages are pictured HERE and HERE. Verbatim content of one:
THE SECRETARY OF WAR HAS ASKED ME TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR SON S/SGT KENNETH DAVIS EARL HAS RETURNED TO MILITARY CONTROL IN JAPAN 16 SEPT 45 AND IS BEING EVACUATED TO THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE NEAR FUTURE PERIOD HE WILL BE GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU UPON ARRIVAL IF HE HAS NOT ALREADY DONE SO PERIOD REPORT FURTHER STATES CONDITION GOOD PERIOD THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE HAS BEEN RECEIVED IN THE WAR DEPARTMENT FOR DELIVERY TO YOU QUOTE PRAISE GOD AM SAFE AND SOUND AND WILL BE HOME SOON UNQUOTE [ indeciferable ] ACTING THE ADJUTANT GENERAL
Imagined content of another:
ARRIVING THURS 0900 TO HELP WITH STUFFING AND SET TABLE STOP MARGE
.