lug. 26.
'THERE are times when we say unkind things about the Chinese Post Office. On most of these occasions the Post Office has something to say for itself; it does even happen that it may have so much to say for itself that it looks as if the original charge ought never to have been made. Then relations are strained and correspondence becomes ver formal indeed. This, we imagine, is a common experience, as also that on sober reflexion we must all agree that the Post Oflice does a most wonderful work and does it most efficiently under incredible difficulties.—Bandits roam the country holding up all and sundry; civil wars spring up like dust storms, die down and are renewed; couriers are robbed and beaten, postmasters carried off for ransom; still, somehow the mails get through and year by year the business of the Post Office increases beyond belief. The report for 1928 contains a tribute to the staff which we take pleasure in reproducing:—
Acknowledgment is made of the fidelity, patience, and loyalty the many employes whose lot during the year has been a hard one. Couriers have in some cases been killed, inland Postmasters and their staffs have been kidnapped—the fate of the Postmaster of Tsaoyang (Hupeh) is still unknown after six months—and sectional Inspectors have and endured ing imes twiew over on the same journey. The Administration is. singularly favoured the quality of the services they have rendered, for it ix to these services that' the extraor integrity and security of the mai are due.
There is also a tribe commanders of foreign gun-' boats, whose assistance and cooperation contributed most nota-' bly to the favourable transmission, in times of difficulty, of mails to and from the Upper Yangtze offices."
As already noted in these columns, the number of articles of mail matter posted during 1928 amounted to more than 473. millions, an increase of 47 million articles over the figures for the previous year. But the considerable increase is attributed more to the withdrawal of foreign postal agencies than to the normal increase of domestic business, seeing that the increases are generally found in the returns of districts in which foreign post offices functioned before the Bist December 1922.
For instance, to the above increase Shanghai contributes 24 millions; Cain, 7 ilians; Shanton millions; While a total increase of 19 millions has been contributed by other districts, a decreae of 14 millions, 3 millions, and half a million is noticeable in the statistics for the Kuangtung, the astern and Western Szechuan, and the Kuangsi Districts, respectively.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.