September 17.
Maxy Britons, with Mr. Henniker Heaton, desire to see the Empire " a single postal district, with one flag and a uniform rate of postage." Already part of this ambition has been achieved, and at the present time an agitation seems to be on foot at Home, both in Parliament, und in the columns. of the Press, to establish " all-red mail services to those portions of the Empire that are still without them, By "all-red," used in its strictest sense, we understand a line of mail steamers, flying the and calling only at British ports. But the advocates routes do not apply this definition strictly in all cusses. They are satisfied with a C. P. R. service to the Far East, although Japanese ports are visited on the way, and they wre seeking now to establish a mail route across Canada to Australia and New Zealand, on somewhat similar lines. It is not through hostile to the motives ing the "all-red," condition, and the mail service diverted round the Cape in order to keep the red thread intact. No route will appeal to us for the conveyance ut our correspondence that' involves the loss of several days in transit. matters not whether our letters ure sent vii Suez, across Canada, or by the Siberian railway, as long as they yet out or home as soon as possible and-at regular intervals 5 and every delay that can be avoided means so much loss to the business:
We appreciate any acceleration in the carriage of mail regardless of the route by which they come, but an "ull-red" route would appeal most to. us if it were also the quickest Shanghai receives its mails by three routes: the Suez Canal route, which may be said to be only partly British, as the French and German packets also bring out our the Canadian route, tially Brit we except the brief call at Japanese rts; and the Siberian railway. hough the English service vii the Suez Canal has recently been accelerated, our letters take an average of from thirty to thirty-one days to reach steamers. Nor does there seem any likelihood of any improvement on this time, us Shanghai is the terminal port, and the demands of Ind im first atten ti Mails sent across Canada take twenty-six to twenty-even days, but as the R.'s fast steamers only run at intervals of three weeks, and their sailings frequently clash with those of the P. & O. steamers, the dispatch of letters by this route too often means that we receive three mails in a weekend, and no more for a fortnight. This certainly does not conduce to the even distribution of business.
The alternate and by far quickest route the is across Siberia. Letters from London, vii Siberia, only take twenty to twenty-one days to reach underlying this ambition that the Shanghai, and before the war, when present article is written, but only they were transhipped at the Tairen because we feel that in the carringe|(then Dalny) terminus, an even of mails to Shanghai and other shorter period was required. Tran Eastern ports patriotism must shipment at Vladivostok, and the sometimes give way to utu-longer sea-journey resulting thereitarianism. Those who correspond from, mean a loss of one and a half for business or pleasure with|to two days in.transit. Very few their countrymen across the seas|letters from or to England are sent care little how their mmails|across America, and we need not are carried so long as they reach therefore, consider this route asa their destination as speedily as pos- serious competitor to the other sible. The necessities of business three. demand the adoption of the quick- We believe that residents in the est routes. We can imagine the|Far East unanimously recognize indignation that_ would be aroused|that the Siberian route best meets throughout India were the Suez with their requirements for a speedy Canal route regarded as not fulfill-/and regular mail-service to Europe.
Serr 20 1907
At present it labours under some disadvantages: only letters are carried, and papers, parcels and other heavy mail matter continue come by way of Suez. This state of affairs we may hope to see remedied, or at any rate modified, in the not distant future. The railway is yet in its infancy, and when it has been thorough. ly organized, and the train-service been increased and quickened, we may expect to see all the mail, with the exception of the parcelt post, come to us from the North, It is to be hoped that the Russian and Japanese authorities will son take into consideration the practic. ability of handing the mails over tothe South Manchurian Railway at Changehun and shipping then to Shanghai and other places in North China from Tuiren. Parcels, we fear, will still have to come out by the longest route, as the expense of carrying them by rail across Canada and reshipping. them is too great to be entertained by the Pos Office. It may well be asked then, what advantage would accrue from any extension or acceleration of th so-called "all-red" route. We ar bound to say that the advantage O. will rest with passengers, ani that only if they prefer the Cunadian to the speedier Russisn route. For the conveyance of hears mail matter or cargo the (. P. li, can never compete with the Suer route. Finally, the all-red" route to Australia seems to us to be open to similar objections, became the completion of the Panama Canal will open the way for an all sea service of cargo and passenger steamers that would render any effort to divert the lines of communication into artificial track: premature, It is ea: stand and sympathize with the spirit that prompts the advocates of "all-red" routes, but they are apt to forget that steamship lines cannot be run for long distances for the carriage of mails alone.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.