appoitit a Committee to inquire The Government's decision to into the working of the General Post Office in England is the outcome, presumably, of the cam-_ paign vigorously pressed by Lord Wolmer for the transfer of the department to a public utility undertaking on the lines of the British_ Broadcasting Corpora. tion. The decision will be welcomed if only because the discussion of the merits of the unhappy department had become a battle-ground for the opponents and supporters of State socialism, In point of fact, as Mr. 'Lees-Smith, has explained, the proposals put forward by' the Critics of the present regime are really as socialistic as, those which they are intended "to re-Place, Perhaps one reason for the development of the agitation against the Post Office has been the curious accident of the ex: istence in that department of more pronounced champions of advanced socialism than in_ other Government service. is no new feature. It was firmly established long before the war. Then the department has been handicapped by the furious technical controversies which have arisen in the development of wireless and telephone tions, A further complicating factor has been presented by the readiness with which the public look upon the Post Office as fair game for criticism which, if applied so relentlessly to' ther: Services, would be at once, regarded as intolerable and unfair, This latter experience is common to most Postal Services all the world over, It has its origin ingrained human weakness. It may be noted that even 80 normally a, fair newspaper as "The Times" has been reluctant to ascribe virtues to the G.P.0. which, from that journal, has endured the acerbities of " partisanship only less than those in. flicted by the same source on the Inland Revenue Department. The "popular" press has joined with the comic journals in ministering to humour—misguidor otherwise—by exposing the alleged administrative defects of a department, thus jevated into a national cock 1y. The evils so pilloried have been attributed to the lack of business-like acumen popularly' supposed to be inherent in any Government organisation, Yet, when all is said and done, the actual figures of the Post Office's activities, the blind confidence placed invit every moment of the day by the public and the eflicieney taken so naively for granted must strike the tnprejudiced observer as quaintly The Government seem to have realised the importance of obtaining an authoritative ruling. They have not_gone to politicians or cranks. The Committee appoint ed is to be presided over by that admirable exponent of British commonsense, Lord Bridgeman, sportsman and statesman with an Honours Degree in the background of his Varsity days. He will be assisted by Lord Plender, 4 chartered accountant with an indisputable reputation and by Sir John Cadman, a scientist, mining engineer and foremost: captain of industry. This trio] should be able to arrive at satisfactory conclusions on the vexed question of Post Ofice organisation. The public may be assured that no political prejudice, no embedded economic theory ' will blind them to the actual facts. The Post Office chiefs may be pected to welcome such an inquiry. If all. their contentions are correct, the introduction of changes in certain directions Improve the power of the Post Office to develop on lines area aid down, For the rest they may expect a true vindication of policies about which there has been much misunderstanding and misrepresentation, They are not likely to pretend that the. pub-Hie will be permanently deprived of its stock jokes. They would—being humane and human, out of, office hotirs—be the last to sugest that such a social catastrophe should be precipitated.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.