Mail transfer doesn't work

I have mail, directories and filters on my old computer that I want to 
bring to my new one. The old one used Slackware 12.0 with KDE 1.9.7 
and kde 3.5.7. The new one uses kmail 1.9.10 with kde 3.5.10.

I brought the entire /home/safe directory over from the old system via 
nc and put it in a different directory called /home/safer. I can get 
at my emails in //home/safer. I can read this email on the new system 
if I give a second password.

Now I want to transfer the whole shebang, messages, folders and 
filters to my new /home/safe user. But all attempts at importing the 
contents to /home/safe fail. Either I get nothing or I get messages 
that disappear as soon as I access them. 

Given these two directories on my new system how do I get everything 
form A to B and still have everything keep on working?  Either the 
import feature doesn't work or I am not using it correctly. 

I have some older emails in a directory called Mail that I would like 
to resurrect also. How do I import them successfully?

All responses appreciated. 

John Culleton