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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clfchd, il est filmd d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 T 9 PRIOR SIXPENCE. Second Edition. Unifor^n] Impei^ial postage: AN ENQUIRY AND A PROPOSAL, WITH AN ■V Introductory Letter to Sir DANIEL COOPER, Bart, G.C.M.G. \. V v>^^_"^" .,"„"v, -^ ^"^' ^^j\,'^^"^"^'^^"^f\r~r^ '^-r>A , gi.GTyS!Hioiri[Pi u.'\.-i,^^"^^\rj-^'\^-./-u^u'\,'SL.'u',f\.~\r^~^\i'^'\ f ■V, P - V BY ROBERT J. BEADON, M.A. (Oxon.), Member of the Kxemtivc Committee of the Impi/ial Federation League. Ik Published for THE IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE, 30, Chaeles Street, Bebkeley Squabe, London, W., '•• By CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited: LONJJOX, PARIS 4- MELliOURNE. Mi •^ 3K3 UNIFORM IMPERIAL POSTAGE: AN ENQUIRY AND A PROPOSAL, WITH AX Jntrotmrtor)) S.rttrr TO SIR J3a:suel cooper, BAIIT., g.c.m.g. BY ROBERT J. BEADOX, M.A. (Oxox.), Mciiiliii- III' till' Hxcciitiif Ciiiiiiiiitfi'( ill III, I iniii-iiiil I-'cihratliiii Lfdimr. ir>ocoit6 ^•^ttion. J'ii!Msiii;i. I.. I! TIIK I.MI'KUIAL FEDKKATION [.KAdUK, 'M), ClIAIM.KS SntKKT, lUciiKKl.KV SyUAUE, LOXDOX, "\Y., l!v CASSKLJ. .\: CUM PAN V, Li m iti'd : I.OXnoX, I'JRIS .V MEI.lidVRXE. CONTKXrs, I.N'IKOlilCliiK'i- r.KTI r.K .. Si:('iii>N I. Tin; SnrArioN l'\i;i: i Si'.ciioN 11. NN'iiAT IS WA\ii:i) 1:5 SlXTKJX ITT. OliSTACI.KS IN I III: WW 21 Skciiun 1 V. ~ PiiorosALs :58 Skction V, -- Summary r)3 IXTRODUCTORY LETTER. such ;: f l']inpire Iiiiper* '01 Tu s;r DAXri-JL ('nni'lJR, Hurt., <;.('.}f/r. ^ ])i:ar S[1{ Damkl Cooper,— Imperial coinmunieations t.n-m so iniporfcimt a link in the chain of comnioii interests I)!i ling- toL^ether t!ie scattered frag-nients of the liritisli Kinpn-e, that tne '^niperial Federation Leao-ue lias always U'l.en an mim, ■ phice, aniono- the means towards its .St .. , -.iMi-- or these communications upon dd ;c once mark the unity of the ) en,v:i-e it' permanence. Uniform '-''■ r " i'' intl* d. any more an actual part '.1} c< ■ ■'" ,... preceikn>.t of Imperial Federation in its strictly political sense, li.an is the Commercial Union "I the Empire which, in on-' form or another, is just now so much advocated. IJut, like Commercial Un'ion (the attainment of which in almost anv form is surrounded l>y such enormous difficulties), Uniform Imperial iV^stai^e \\^ould und(uil)tedly '('nd very stroni,dy towards that National Unity, the completion ^md maintenance of which IS the aim of the Imperial Federation Lea<>-ue. OF the teleg-rap' ic hrancli of our communications l' do not here speak, imperial considerations enter into that side of the matter also; but the circumstances and conditions are so 'iitirely dillerent that the two cannot b.' treated too-ether. The Lean-ue has, throUi.-h its Postal Committee, kept th" subject of Uniform Imperial Postao'e before the (Jovern- ments and the public both at home and in the Colonies, while ill Canada the matter has been specilically broTio'ht beiore the Dominion (Jovernment by the Leao-ue there. Tiie work of the London committee has borne fruit in the action taken, upon its sugovstions and recommendations, by a great number of Chambers of Commerce and other bodies of hke nature. The subject has also received -ht usefully be written on the subject ; somethin^^ fuller than is a])pr()- priate to the reports of the Postal Committee or to the columns of Jnqx'ridl Fcdcrnfioii : something-, also, written more distinctively from the standpoint of th(> Loao-ue than any of the statements proniuli,'ated by ^Ir. Heaton, whose postal principles are by no means identical with those which, as \ understand them, underlie the policy of the JjeaL,nie. There are special reasoi>s for briuii'ing- the matter forward ai;'ain in this manner at the present moment. The reductions in Colonial l*ostag-e brought into elTect on the first day of the present year, while an unciuestioned boon so far as they e^o, involve nevertheless an insidious element of danger to the cause of Imperial l\)stage. The identity of the letter-rate with that of the Postal Union was too significant not to excite suspicion in those whose aim is a uniform rate of postage throughout the TMn])ire within and without the United Kingdom. The authoriti.?s at the Post Office and the Treasury felt the time to have come when the former exorbitant rates must be given up ; but they apparently decided that the International Postal Union should form the basis of the Imperial Postal system of the future, outside the United Kingdom. These fears have only too soon been justified. The Australasian and South African Colonies, which are the principal groups that have hitherto stood outside the Postal Union, have been pressed by the English Postnuister-General to be repre- sented by delegates at the forthcoming quinquennial con- INTltOBUCTOU Y I. ETTEIi. fcrt'iice ot" that Union shortly to beheld in Vienna, in the hope that now when the rates have — by snch a fortunate coineitlenee — been assimilated, those Colonies should con- form to the International Convention. And there is i^round to apprehend that at length — after four more than the " twelve years of persistent pressure " to this end referred to at the Imperial Conference in 1S87 — they will now accede to the wishes of the central office. The effect would obviously be to stren than a languid assent to the principle that cheaper postage was a good thing in the abst)'act — only it cost money. Kevertheless, that much, and still more, probably, tiie informaticm published in the Conference JJlue Books and subse(pientl3' digested at leisure bv those whom tliey concerned, have borne fruit later, and the state of things tt)-day is vastly more fi^vourable than it was four ^ears ago. It is unnecessary perhaps to rr^-iU the exorbitant rates of postage and the hundred-and-one anomalies -^hat existed mitil only the other day. It seems scarcel}-- credible that (disregarding the unira^^ortant concession n)ade two years ago of a slightly cheaper alternative route to Australasia and South Africa) we went on patientl}', until some tliree months ago, paying tivepence for the half- ounce letter to India, the Straits, Hong Kong and other Colonies and Dependencies in the East, and sixpence to South Africa and Australasia ; while all the time the UNIFORM IMPERIAL rOHTAGE. Trench and the Germans were in the enjoyment of a 2 id. rate to the same phices and to others even more rtnnote by the same routes and even by the same ships. It was time indeed that an end should liave been put to a state of things so discreditable to our administration of Postal affairs, calculated, as it was, to estrange those whom it is desirable on every ground, political, material and social, to keep and bind together, and especially militating atniinst the growth of trade between different portions of the Empire, by means not only of the absolute hindrance to correspondence of high charges, but by reason of the relativelv superior position ac^corded to commercial rivals on tlie continent of Europe. We luive now at length l)een placed in some respects on an equal footing with our hitherto more favoured competi- tors , but the same considerations as to the encouragement of trade afford an argument for placing ]3ritish commerce, at home and in the Colonies, upon a more favoured footing than its foreign rivals, and so helping to swell the volume of the trade done within the bounds of the Empire— a trade the profits of which accrue on both sides to British Com- munities instead of, as in the case of foreign trade, the profits on one side only. If this can be effected without injustice to public or private interests lying outside com- merce, it is surely an object w-orth sti-iving for. The element of personal correspondence also is one that must not be lost sight of. Opportunities of frequent comnmni- cation afforded by cheap rates cannot but tend to keep up amonf the scattered branches of our race that sense of beino-^all "of the same community," upon which Lord Carrinf'-ton on a recent occasion laid so much stress. Still more fs tbis feeling likely to be encouraged by making communication wdthin the Empire more easy than with outside countries, just because it is the Empire. That is the prhiciple we want to see acted upon in establishing a cheap and uniform system of Imperial Postage— cheap as compared with the system a])plicable to the outside world, and uniform, because the Empire is a unit and all the e communii people in it Before passins from these general considerations, there i THE SITUATION. 9 is one piu'tieuliir point of much practicjil iniportanco inti- inately connected with this view of the case — it is the postage upon newspapers and certain otlier analogous t'orins of postal matter. A newspaper has a double claim to consideration; it constitutes a form of corre- spondence between persons living apart, as well as bein<^ of course, the great channel of public information , and Tt serves in respect of its advertising columns, as a means of commercial progress. On grounds of public policy, news- papers containing mercantile advertisements should be en- couraged as much as possible. But what do we find? We find on the contrary their distribution discouraged in two ways— firstly, by high and ill-graduated rate."; and .secondly, by the actual exclusion, so i'ar as it lies in the power of the Post Office, of the very class of prints that public polic) woulu especially favour as of the chief com- mercial service. In Canada, as well as in some of the Australian Colonies, newspapers are transmitted at much lower rates than obtain in Great Britain, and in some cases actually free. Newspapers published in Canada are carried to their subscribers free — not only in the iJominion but in the Unit d States and Newfoundland, wdiile a pound weight can be mailed thence to the United Kingdom at a cost of one cent. Compare this with the charge in the other direction, hence to Canada, of the same sum of one halfpenny (or one cent) for every two ounces of a news- ])aper's weight ; so that it would cost fourpence to send to Canada the same weight of newspapers as come thence to us for one halfpenny. Again, it costs a penny to send a newsnaper, however light, to the Cai)e or any of the Australian Colonies; and if the weight e.xceeds four ounces, the rate jumps at once to twopence. In addition, there are all maimer of regula- tions as to collected uuml)(>rs of a paper, folding, enclosures, marks or writing, etc., of which an unfortunate newspaper has to run the gauntlet, culminating in what has been well called the "time-trap" — that is, the regulation insisting upon postage within eight days of publication inclusive. Is it any wonder that in the face of these rates the most valuable part of the paper (the advertisement sheet) often 10 UMFORM IMl'EltlAL I'USTACH. jrets cut oft' to save posta*;o? or that iiiulor the various; rei^ulations aft'octiug- newspapers the l*ost OtHce ^'ets a hirg-e ([uautity of postages for pa])ers tluit it incontinently confiscates for ialling- into its own ingeniovisly-laid traps? • And this is not all For transmission abroad, prices current and market reports may l)e registered as news- papers, as well as such prints as come within the general definition as consisting " wholly or in great part of political or other news, or of articles relating thereto or to other current toi)ics, with or without advertisements." 13ut private price lists and trade catalogues are expressly ex- cluded by the regulations ; and trade journals, consisting-^ as they necessarily do in chief part of such matter and of advertisements, are constantly excluded likewise, behig neither prices current and market reports, nor ccuiiing- always within the definition of a newspapi-r, as consisting^ whc^'ly or in great part of xiews. For example, the Boo/c- 8rf/e/i^ a trade journal, dealing, as its name implies, with a business devoted to the ditYusion of knowledge. Com- mercial interests apart, in the interests of the spread of knowledge generally this particular ])ul)lication is entitled to the highest consideration ; and doubly so in the in- terests of knowledge flowing from a Jiritish source in competition with the Hood of perverted teaching, historical, political, and social, that pours through the Cokmies from the American press subject to no such disabilities. But if the BookxcHer, or any similar publication, oversteps by ever so little an arbitrary line reguhiting the proportion of advertisements; to news, the whole issue is confiscated. Yet it is by means of price lists and trade catalogues, and by trade journals and other such vehicles of advertising, that J^ritisii merchants are able to hohl the markets of the world, and, not least, of the British Empire itself with which we are here concerned. A great step, it is admitted, has been in some respects gained by the new rates introduced by the (lovernmeiit in T^U(), into the enjoyment «d" which we entered last Is'ew Year's Day. And that relorm involved something more than the mere reduction of ])ostag(! to India and the Colonies. It involved a recognition, in a certain sense, of THE SITUATIOX. u the Imperiul idea — of the desirability of fiicilitatiiig postal coinnumication Avithiii the Ein])ire as such. It involved also the recognition of two iynportant principles hitherto not only not recognised but vehemently combated by English governments. One of these is the application of the growing Post Office sui-plus to increasing the postal facilities of the pul)lic instead of applying it in relief of general taxation. The other is the right of Colonial correspondence to share with that witliin the T/nited Kingdom in the benefit of such increased facilities. jMr. Goschen had been as stiff as any of his predecessors in resisting the first of these ; while Mr. llaikes, almost up to the very day before the concession was announced in the Budget speech of JSUO, had been firing off batteries of arguments to prove the logical and practical justice of excluding Colonial and Indian correspondence from parti- cipation in any reductions or increased facilities that might be going. The recognition of these principles is a great gain, but it yet remains to carry them out to their con- sistent and legitimate conclusion — a conclusion legitimate and consistent not only on theoretical but also on practical grounds. What that is and why it is so, and how it can be reached with due regard to all interests concerned and to the dictates of reasonable workaday commonsense — for there is no need to rake a high stand on abstract right alone or to rely on arguments that, however logical] v unimpeachable, would fail to commend themselves to the wisdom of business men — it is to these questions that Ave have to try and give a satisfactory answer. ]IE.-;U.ME OF SECTION T. Cheapness and other facilities of postal communication within the Empire are vastly important on political, material, and social grounds. Existing rates of postage within the Empire are obstructive of cheap and ready communication. Tl us !S es])e('ia 'y tl le ras'^ as reii' ards other vehicles of commercial advertisement newspapers and 1 M UNIFOIOI ULTEIUAL POSTAGE. A great step was stained by the reduction of rates effected on New Year's Day, 1S91. That step was something more than a mere reduction in rates, which was in itself advantageous as far as it went. It involved some important principles. One of them was the partial recognition of the Empire as a unit to be dealt with. Another, the application of fresh snrplus to giving increased facilities instead of its being appropriated as revenue. The third was the right of correspondence to the Colonies to share with inlmd in the benefits so obtained. WHAT IS WANTED. as Wii:t is wanted is, in half a dozen words, a cheap and uniform rate of posta<,^e tliroug-hout the Empire. And by " the Em])ire " is here always to be understood the whole Empire. Many people, when they speak of the Empire, are thinking- only of those portions of it that lie over sea. The expression has come to be often used as a compen- dious way of saying " the colonies and dependencies," and so it stands for the Empire with its most important part left out. " Empire " and "Imperial " in these pag:es refer to the whole of Her Majesty's dominions, those within as well as those without the United Kingdom. Fifty years ago a cheap and uniform rate of postage was established throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Since that time the developments in the "expansion of England " have rendered necessary, and immensely in- creased means of locomotion have rendered possible, the extension of the system adopted in 1840 within the four seas to the larger area now embraced within the dominions of the (^leen, and peopled by her subjects. It is a common- place to say that many over-sea portions of the Empire are practically nearer to London, and the most distant scarcely further on than were Connemara, Sutherlandshire, or the Orkneys only a couple of generations ago. Steam and mechanical science have not quite "annihilated time and space;" but they have so enormously increased our means of overcoming them, es])ecially upon the ocean, that to have one system of communications, or, to come to the point, one rate of postage, for the wliole of the United Kingdom and another outside, is an anachronism. The line so drawn has ceased to square with modern facts. Can it besu])p()sed, for instance, that it costs less to get a letter from Loudon conveyed to and delivcn-ed in the Orkneys or Shetland-; than in ^Montreal ? There is no occasion ia enter into elaborate calculations based upon the dues paid 1^ VNIFOIUI LUrEPIAL POST AGE. 'i\ by the Post Office to the Scotch steamship companies and the nnmbor of letters carried (even if that were ohtaiiu^ble) to arrive at the answer, that, so far from costinijc less, it must cost considerably more. The fi<)^ures tliat foUow will be sufficient for the purpose. The contracts for the con- veyance of mails in 1881) 90 between the followini^ places were : — Aberdeen and Lerwick, ,t2,.0()() ; Scrabster and Stromness, £2,000; Liverpool and Isle of Man, £l,r)00; Stornoway and Stromeferry, £:2,:2.')0 ; Greenock, Eothesay, and Ardrishaig, £2,0 lo ; Portree, Lochmaddy, and Dun- ve(]^an, £1 ,5oO. The total packet service to these and other over-sea portions of the United Kinii-dom cost £125,.'J.Sl. That to the United States and Canathi stood at £S."),000. The relative amount of mail matter carried cannot be ascer- tained, but may be safely left to the imag-ination of the reader. And yet, because Ardrishaiij^ and Dunveijcan and the Isle of Jjewis are within the circh' of what liftv years ago was practicallj^ so far as popuhition counts, almost the Avhole " realm," inhabited by British-born subjects of Her Majest}', letters are delivered there and broug-ht thence for one penny, while the rate to Canada is still two and a-half times that amount for letters of half the weight ; or. weight for weight, five times as much. That, there are other ])arts of the Empire to which it must always cost more to send a letter than to even the most outlying parts of the United Kingdom is ])ossibh.', though the number of such places is not kirge, and tiieir import- ance less. ]3ut that does not affect tlie present argument, which is, that the existing system involves a cross-division and is, under nujdern conditions of transit, an unfair and unjustiliable one. The time has come for revising our postal geography. The horizon of the .l\)st Office vision needs to be extended, and the gre.'t historical fact recog- nised that " Britain " is a world-wide Empire, and that that Lmpir,' is a unit. The whole of the territories occupied by the British ])eo])le form a single political empire ; and therefore logically and practically they must be regiirded as a single yroup. exactlv as, fi*'tv vears ago, the whole of the United Kingdom, places within a mile of St. ]\Iartiirs-le-Urand, and the furthermost hamlet 117/17' 7,s' WAXTED. m on the north-west coast of Irehiiid or tlie islands of Scot- huid, were brou^-ht into a single grouj) and all placed under one postal system and one rate of postag-e. This is the one Fundamental principle to be reco»^nised, that communication w^ith all parts of the Empire oui^-ht to l)e treated as a branch oF internal, not of external, Post OlHce manag-ement. At present, the " Foreii^-n and Colonial .Mails " ibrm a class together as distinL'-uisluMl from " Inland ]\[ails," a phrase covering all m.iils within the United Kingdom, whether their carriage be actually " inland," or by coast-wise ])acket service. This classiHca- tion was natural enough, no doubt, geographicallv. And, as regards some routes, and particularly sonu' special services along those routes, such as the trans-continental railway service for the ([uick eastern nuiil and the Mediterranean connections, it may not at anytime be possible to sever the Foreign from the colonial (or as w^e prefer to say, " Im- perial ") element, so far as regards the conveyance of the mails ; but a distinction can perfectly well be made in the ])ostage charge nevertheless. Such cases apart, the classification we contend for is one based on the distinc- tion, not between internal and external in a geographical sense, from the point of view of England, but between the .same words in their political signification — meaning, by "internal/' "within the Empire," and by "external" meaning " foreign " — we would, in short, divide our postal system as we divide many other things into " British " on the one side, and " foreign " on the other. We want the J*ost OlKce to take up once more the })rinciples which guided I'owland Hill to the Penny Post throughout the United Kingdom, and apply them (^n the lai'ger scale demanded by the existing conditions of Her .Majesty's dominions. As a part, though not a necessary \n\vt, of this system, may be suggested the adoption of a uniform Imj)erial stamp, available for ])ostage between all and any j)(jrtions of the Empire. iSuch a stamp need not oust from its pride of })lace the inland stamp oi" any part of the JMn])ire, wnere a sp(>cial device, sue 'h as tin? I'Uiu or the ('cnteiinial device of New South Wales, or the graceful Western m io uxirninr uipeiual vostaok. Austniliuii swan, is clicrislied as racy of tlie soil. Jiut the juloptiou of a stamp common to all Her ]\Iajcsty's dominions for pnvposos of intercommunication, would serve to mark, in an emphatic and practical Avav, the unity of the Empire. Such a stamp could be printed wherever issu(u, upon a uniform design, changini*- only the ame of the countrv of ori<>i n. an d wl lere, as in Canada, there is a ditt'erent currency, the denomination When Itowland Hill decided to make the postage the same for a letter to Scotland as for one to the n(\\t street in London, his calculation was based not only uj)on the large proportion of total cost assignable to terminal cluirges, but upon a general ])rinciple of " making the good pay for the bad." The milli(.ns of letters collected and delivered in London and other large centres at a high proht make up I'orttiose delivered at great distances and outlying ])arts at little or no profit and often at siderable loss. This ])rinci])le is still conlined to th( Tnited Kingdom. It should be extended to the Empire m a con- Tl U're is no valid ri ason why a correspondent in Hamp- shire writing to a third cousin in the Isle of Skye about a terrier should have part of the cost of his letter paid out of the profit made by the Post Ofhce on Jjondon letters, while another writing from Susse.K to his brother in Australia has to pay the whole cost of his letter, and, as shall be shown by and by, a great deal more than its real cost. Sauce for the Hampshire goose should be sauce for the Sussex gander. Admit the pririciple, as it has been admitted since ls|(), of "taking the rough Avith the smooth," and there is no just ground for drawing a ring- ing the prin- fence round the United Kingdom and ap])ly ciple there and there only. A somewhat plausible objection to the extension to Colonial nuiils of the principle of making th( for the bad is that " whatever nuiv be tl le <>oo( le case in can be no doubt that, taken individual instances, there throughout, postages over these long distances must cost a * TllO (Icsinll f llf MIC I a .sf.Minii. •'^l")\vii (ill f'urnis jipjiiic'ililc to coiiiitrics wiicrc III.' (•(.iii;it;c ililTcisi oil tile outhicic of tliits piiiiiplilct. i.s .'•iif^'-goslcd iippi-ojinatL" to it-s liii|K'rial (.•liaractcr. a.s WHAT IS WJXTPJI). 17 considerable amount more tlian a corresponding quantity of postages at liome ; tliat tlie question is one° of degree, and that when the difference is very great it is fair and reasonable to draw a line." That, under existing arrangements, the difference may in some cases he considerable, is very likely true ; and, iii onh'Y to bring the cost in such cases more nearly to the level of the_ inland post, fundamental changes wilfhave to be eflected in those arrangements. In many instances, on the ()ther hand, the inland cost can hardly be exceeded; while in others again, as shown above, the cost of so-called inland letters inust far exceed the average of the ocean- borne mails. What is contended is that, even though loss accrue to the Post Office revenue, provided that the loss be brought by administrative reform within the narrowest attainable limits, correspondence with distant parts of the Emj)ire is entitled as a matter of right, and, on grounds of public policy, ought to l)e placed on the same footing as that within the United Kingdom and treated as a part of that rather than as a part of the foreign correspondence of the country. This contention rests on [m])erial grounds. It remains, under the present head, to say a few words, if indeed any words at all are wanted, as to the general desira- bdityoFchea]) ])ostal conmiunicatioii throughout theEmpire. The utility of the measure from the commercial point of view has already been glanced at, and may be safely left to speak for itself in the appreciation of a commercial people :uich as we are. But the ordinary social and personal class of correspondence, though its necessities rest upon less, demonstrably utilitarian grounds, is nevertheless entitled to consideration for reasons in the long run as practical as those which may be taken to be admitted in regard to strictly commercial affairs. All those who desire to see the unity of the Empire maintained— and in these days there are few who do not— must recognise that facilities of intercommunication constitute one of the most important means towards this end. And the unity of the Empire IS con ling to be very widely recognised, as it has always been recognised by the imperial Federation League, as not a mei-e sentimental idea, but as the fuudamentaf con dit ion m UXTFomi IMI'KnfAL POSTAGE. of material prosperity and of i)olitical streii<;'tli and develop- ment. Tlie '/////(".v, and other leadin<^ daily papers both in Londim and the provinces, did not fail to ])oint thi,: moral on the occasion of tlic Postal Jubilee. The Econo- mist too — a paper not wont to be led away by sentiment from a strictly })r()saic view of facts and fiij^ures — had some remarks on that occasion which will bear repeating;. It said *■ : " J\'rha])s, however, the g-reate^t boon which the Department could bestow would be the inau^-uration of a penny postaL>'e throuii^hout the Empire. At lirstthis sounds an impossibility, unless we are pi'epared to expend a vast sum of money in making- np the loss that would occur owing to the adoption of such a step. In reality, however, it is no more absurd than Rowland Hill's original proposal. Of the political advantages of an Imperial Penny Postage, we have no space to speak. It may be said, however, that such a I'nk between the various portions of the Empire would be worth three hundred years of agitation Ijy the Imperial Federation League in making the English-speak- ing* countries feel the importance of their common in- terests." Tiie lujoiioiiii-sl would have been giad to know that some portion of that over-long life which it assigns to the agitation of the Imperial Federation Leag'ue had already been in the past, and will no doubt continue to be in the future, devoted to the furtherance of reforms in this direc- tion ; that the idea itself was first put forward by a promi- nent member of the League — ]\Ir. Arnold- Forster — so long ago as 188."J, in an article in the Xu/clcci/fh Ccnfur// maga- zine ; in particular, that special prominence had been given to the subject, a few months before the above passage appeared, in Lord Posebery's pronouncement as to the jDrogranime of the Jjcague at a large meeting held at the ^lansi )u House; that the League in Canada, at their annual meeting held a fortnight after the EconoiniM wrote, carried a resolution in favour of an Imperial Penny Post, to which the Dominion Postnuister-Geueral promised consideration as a Cabinet question ; that, actirg under the direction of the Executive Committee of the central * h cunoiiiis L Jan. 18, 1890 WILir IS WANTED. W League in London, tho postal sub-committee here has phiced itself in comniuni'iation with the Chambers of Com- merce throughout the Empire on the subject ; and, gene- rally, that tho Imperial Federation League has always used, and continues to use, all the means at its command to forge the link spok'-n of by the Eco/iODtist. Ferha])s one of the most convincing facts tending to show the disuniting effect of the present prohibitive postal rates is supplied by an argument brought forward to prove that no change is necessary. Sir Saul Samuel, who attended the Imperial C(mference of 18S7 as Agent- General for New South Wales, adduced some postal statistics of his colony against any proposed reduction. These showed that the number of letters posted (in 1885) in New South Wales for delivery within the Colony was 34,()'23,()()0, and for the other Australian Colonies and New Zealand 1,7.')0,300, making altogether nearly 3(5,000,000; Avhile the "foreign" despatch of letters, including those to England, was only 703,300 ; that is to say, the " foreign " despatch was not a million letters, while the Colonial was about 36,000,000. " That shows," he added, " that the correspondence with England is very small indeed." Unquestionably it does. But the moral of that, which does not api)ear to have occurred to Sir Saul Samuel, was supplied not long afterwards by Sir William Fitz- herbert (of New Zealand), who, referring to thesf' figures, observed : — " Instead of looking at that with satisfaction, added to the remark that there was growing up a popula- tion that did not know the jMother Country, I am in- fluenced by that as one of the weightiest arguments that could be adduced in favour of quick and speedy and cheap communication between the Mother Country and the CN)lonies, so that they may not be forgotten ; and in addition to that great advantage, I am (^uite sure that tliere Avould also be a verv considerable stimulus given to the development of trade." Obviously, of course, the small number of letters to the Mother Country from New South Wales is accoimted for by the \ ery fact of the high rate of postage, uiid affords, as Sir W. Fitzherbert points out, the best of i.ll reasons for reducing it. 20 UXfrOliM IMPEKiM roSTA';h'. Hut it is jn-ohahly on!}- forciiiLr an a i road v open tluor to labour tlio point of tlic (l.-.sirabilitv of rel'onn in the direc- tion of clieapness, provided that 'it be ])racticab]e. It is time, tiierefore, to pass on U) consider the ])ropo.sals tluit hiive been made, and tin- (jbsta.des in tlie way of all or any of them, and s<. arrive at sucli conclusion'^s as may be attainable on tlie practicabih"tv ..f a step, tJie desirafjility ol which may be taiullicientlv established. IJKsr.MK OK .sKciroN J J. A\ hat is wanted is cheap and uniform postai,^^ throu<.-b. out the Empire. The principle of cheap and nnifonn postage applied by Uowlan-i Hill to the United Kinuxloni should now be extended to the whole Empire. Th.; distinction hitherto has been between "inland" and '• Eoreijrn and Colonial." The time has come to make the distinction one between " Hritish and Forei'^-n." A uniform British ^^mlp mi-ht be issued for inter- imperial corres|)ondence. llowlaiul Hill's principles ai,ply in the circumstances ot the time to the whole Empire. The great advantages of such a reform are o-enerar-r recognised. ° TIT. & OBSTACLES IN TIIP- WAY. It may porluips be sonievvliat iingracious to coniinciice a section under tliis lu^adini; with an account of the schemes of Postal reformers tiiemselves. liut, as regards the Post Office scheme, at any rate, it is so unmistakable an obstack' in the way of the uniformity of postal rates within the Empire advocated in these pages, tha-*- it necessarily finds a place in this section. The great panacea iccommended by the Post Office, when the recently amended higli rates (jf the O'^ian Packet Services werv' complained of, was the further extension of the Postal Union system. We are all given to push our own pet remeay for any or all ot the 'lis thit, whether literally or figuratively, our poor humanity is heir to, and nof least when the nostrur.i happens to be of our own in- vention. And so it is with the Post Office and the Postal Union, which may be regarded to a great extent as its own pr.rticular bantling. But, apart from the virtues and vices of this system in relation to our communication with foreign countries on the Continent of Europe and some others outside it, we have very little hesitation in affirming roundly that in relation to the question of Imperial Ccm- munications, the Postal Union system has been and is nothing short of disastrous to the interests both of the United Kingdom Ity itself and of the Empire as a whole. The Imperiai Post Office has striven hard to bring the other postal aduiinistrations of the Empire into the Union, and has after " twelve years' work ... in persist- ently reviving this question " (as a memorandum of its own ingenuously admitted ) succeeded in the case of those Oovernments over which our own has a direct control o- iniiuence, and of some others. It mad(^ strenuous efforts a few years ago to induce the Australasian and South A^'rican groups to follow suit, on the principle, it must be assumedrof the fox without a tail ; for it was quite unal^le 22 UNIFOIUI JMI'EhlAL I'DyTAGE. to point to any real advantajT^e to aecrac to those Colonies from inclusion in the Tniun, and they reiiiaiiicd deal" to the eloquence even oF a Post OHiee ]\Ieiiioranduin on " The British Colonies and the Postal Union" in A\hich the "ad- vantages " of joininjj^ were seductively set out. Tliose Colonies had fiscal ol.)jections of their own ; and. apart from these, they niio-ht well ask themselves what en- couragement there was for them to come in, seeing that India and the Colonies that had joined were phieed in no better a position tlnin th.emselves. Now, however, the attempts to gain the adhesion of these outstanding Colonies are being renewed, and it is to be feared with more pros])ect of success. By the arrange- ment elfected last vear a letter-rate identical with the regulation IVstal Union rate of •2h'l. has been established between the United Kingdom and, virtually, all the other countries in the Empire, both those belonging and those not belonging to the Iv.ternational Po.stal Union. Ijy this arrangement the rates with India and the Eastern jjosses- sions that were already in the Union are reduced, by one- half, to the figure all along charged by the Frencli and German Administrations between the same places and the Continent of Em-ope ; while, v/luit is more important for the present purpose, the same rate now obtains with the British Colonies in the Southern Hemisphere as yet stand- ing outside the Union. These have now been begged bv the Postmaster-General to accept the invitation se)it to them to be represented by delegates at the forthcoming Postal Union Conference to be held early this summer in Vienna. It is understood that they will l)e so re])resented. And it is much to be feared that the GovernnnMits of those Colonies will be ])repared, since the rates have been e]nii;ir fonns ol taxation. An iutcrcstinn- comparison has been made l)_v a ('ontincntal writer ol" the i)roi)ortion of i^'ross revenue s|)("nt nj)on lii.'ir postal and tele<,n-ap]iic ^'Tviees bv various lMiroj)ean I'ostal Administrations. Eno-land speiids 70-80 ])or eeiit. as ai^^ainst an average of 89-::>-'J ])er cent, ol" the live Gr(>at Powers and Sj)ain. And even this low ])ropor- tioii is subject to reduction on grounds which will appear imniediatelv. The net revenue derived by the Exche(pier From the Post Ollice in the tinancial year ending 31st ]\Iarch, 189(1, was £3,340,087 ; and even that large sum inadequately represents the amount that would api)ear as net profit for the year in a private commercial institution, or, for tlie nuitter ol" that, in other (government dei)artments, because, whether with a view of concealing the large amount of profit made, or for some other reason, tlie cost of buiidinu's, v/hicli should go to a capital account, is, in the Post Office,' debited wholl v to the current accounts of tlie year. And this aniount of net revenue is not stationarv but progres- sive. The increa.se since 1887 re])resents "the dilleivnce between £;2.5i4,03r) in that year and t3,31(i.(lN7 in 18i)0, or getting on for a million sterling in three years. _ Kow, what Postal Pefonners have demanded is thai this progressive increment, above a lixed sum. sav of three millions, sliould be surrendered by the Treasurv and applied to increased jiostal lacibtics and cheaper rates for thebenelit ol the public. An ex-[Vstmaster-( b-neral. Mr. Shaw-J.efevre. :\I . P., declared at the P<)stal .1 iibilee Baiupiet last year that he could conceive no better way of cele- brating tlie Jubilee an''red by pul^Iic men who may be called uix.n to deal administratively or legislatively with this matter. Sir Arthur Hlackwood said :— " 'riiough styled a revenue dep;irtment and most valuab! e as a macliiri"r\ lol' 11' irect OBSTACLE:^ IX Tlll-J WAY. 25 and uiifolt taxation, I sliould deeply ivg-ret if we crmie to he ren-iirded, or to regard ourselves, as a mere tax-collecti.ig' department. Nothing, in my opinion, would be worse for the Department, and consequently for the public, than for the former to consider as the be-all and end-all of the Post Office Service the extraction of a large revenue from the country; and indeed such a limitation of its functions would defeat the very object for which it exists, namely, the greatest possible convenience to the public by the multiplication and acceleration of every form of communi- cation whicli properly falls within its limits. (Hear, hear.) Nothing would be so calculated to chill the ardour, to stunt the energies, and to repress the inventive zeal of the officers of the Post Office as for them to feel that there are barriers in the path of ])ostal progress which they are forlndden to surmount. (Hear, hear.) ... It is not for me, as a servant of the State, to attempt ^o criticise the doings of my su])eriors, but I confess that 1 should like to see the Post Office, which is the greatest commercial department in the country, administered on something like true commercial ]jrineiples, and a portion at least of its large annual prolif (which in reality is larger than it seems, owing to the system which charges capital expen- diture against income) utilised for developing and ex- tending its work Ibr the general benefit of the public." (Cheers.) That was a strong statement for a member of the ])er- manent staif of a department to make. It showed that the demand to the same effect made bv members of the outside ])ublic could not be set down to pojjular ignorance, or an unreasonable desire for something which those who understood the working of the system would declare un- attainable ; and it showed, at the same time, that it was not the fault of those permanenf officials responsil)le for the administration of the Post Oifice itself thai, revenue con- siderations were allowed to over-ride the public convenience. The pressure brought to bear upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer had its effect, and brought about the re- duction in Colonial rates announced, not so long after these expressions of oninion ai the Jubilci' I'aniiUcf, in ^Ir »P 2f) VXIFOliM DIPEIilAL POSTAGE. k Goscheii's Biulo-et speech. Tliiit eoncession admits the principle of devotiii<^^ some portion of Avliat may be called the su])er-siirplns rev(>nne of the Post Ollice to giving- in- creased postal facilities to the public. But the same exi- gencies of Budget-making may still operate to make Tt very difficult to extract Ironrthe Treasury any further application of the same ])rinciple. In this, therefore, and in what immediately follows, though the principles have b(>en admitted, it is still necessary to make out a case ibr their further application. The concession of last year admits also a further prin- ciple of the greatest importance, namt'ly, the right of Colonial correspondence to share with the inland m the division of such spoil as the Exchccjuer can be induced to surrender. But here too the prin'M])le has received as yet only a partial application. Colonial corres])ondence "has been given some advantage. 1)ut not the whole advan- tap-e to wdVich it is entitled. And the arguments that were used against giving it an}- share at all will ])ossibly be once more adduced against giving it any further advantage than it has got. The main as])e. of this argument has already been noticed in the cont ntion that the corre- spondent writing to Australia haslie same claim to assist- ance out of general Post Oflice surplus as the correspondent who Avrites to the Isle of Sl^ye. Tlu'r.' is another side to it, viewing the correspondent on the one hand and the general taxpayer on tlie other, which has tluis been i)ut by Mr. Baikes: " Under any circumstanc<>s, it (the cost to the Post Ofhce) must conu' out of on(> purse, and be provided by the taxpayer, and it is lor Parliament to decide how far that section of the letter-writing public which communi- cates with the Colonies should be relieved of the cost of their correspondence* at th.- ex])cnse of those taxpayers who write no Colonial letters." This argument, though used against Colonial corres])ondence, really goes to the whole question of using surplus tor the beneiit of corr ' indents, or for the relief of general taxation. I^iit it is no longer necessarv to re])lv to it, save as regards Colonial corre- sptmdeuce, to which it was ('specially addressed. The arii'unu'nt, it is conceived, rests on a iallacy. OBSTACLES IX TITK WAY. 27 The |)urso of the whole connnunity and tlie purse of people who wri " letters to tlie Cojoiiies can hardly Ije described as on And the whole question resolves itself into tliis : w.iethe^ the expenses incurred by the Post Office in connection with the Ocean l^icket Services are necessarily incurred in tlie interests alone of the persons who use tliem, and are at the same time so ,i,n-eat in pro- portion to the expense of the inland sei-vices that it would be unfair to support them, either at the expense of other branches of the postal system, or at that of the general taxpayer, who would profit to the extent of any sums not expended upon those services. If this were so, Mr. Kaikes would have some show of reason in arguing, as he did, that the plan of charging, higher rates of postage on Colonial than on inland correspondence, had the advantage of charging a certain sum to those persons who get the " quid pro (|uo." But if, on the contrary, it can be shown, as it shall be shown presently, that these costs and charges are incurred bv the Government, not for the benefit of the letter-writers, but, as to the xavy large proportion of their amount, for the benefit of the community at large ; then it follows that, even on the vicious principle of making every class pay its own cost, it would not be legitimate to charge the letter-writers the wliole of the amount; and that, so far from there being any truth in the talk about " taxing the many for the bciietit of the few," the truth is that at existing rates the reverse of this is still the case, and the writers of letters lo the Colonie^. are not merely charged for the " (|uid pro quo " they receive, but are being taxed, and were until lately being taxed still moi-e heavily, for the beneiit of the rest of tlie community and for the relief of their taxation. The amount of mone\' expended in ^"mneetion with the Ocean Packet Services is very excessive. The reasons for this excessive expenditun' are twofold, and neither of them affords iiny justification lor making the correspondence itself especially liable to meet it. One of these reasons is the system ol" subsidies paid to the gnnit lines of mail steamers ; the other is the onerous character of the obliga- tions undertaken by the Jjritish iVstal Administration 2g UNIF0n2I DIPEBIAL POSTAGE. 1 ^1 . VnsenLj;rr :u'<'(um nodntion, to carry iiav •A and military o tHocr: \v itl> then* wives a nd children OBSTACLES IX THE WAY m and bay'ij^au^o, upon tho requisition of tlie Postiiuistcr- Genenil, in accordance with tho terms of the contract. In other instances the owners have un(h'rtaken to construct or alter their vessels in accordance with plans laid down for them by the Admiralty, so as to more especially adapt them for use as armed cruisers in time of war. Until a little more than thirty years ago, the subsidies for these purposes were actually paid by the Admiralty, and a strong- protest was entered, but in vain, on behalf of the Post OlHce, wdien the burden of them was transferred to that department. The transfer was a clever way of making the Naval Estimates smaller without apparently swelling those of any other department. The Post Office is an earning, more than a spending department, and this outlay therefore is made without being recognised as a part of the Naval expenditure or indeed much thought of at all, since Parliament votes money readily enough for the Post Office, knowing that its expenditure on one side of the account is very amply compensated by receipts on the otiier. That this system of paying out of Post Office revenues, and under the name of postal subsidies, for all such outside purposes remains still an admitted principle of administration, may be seen from the covenants of the contracts quoted above an,l by the admission of the Government itself. In a Treasury Minute of 18th July, 1880, approving the contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway for the convej-ance of "Her Majesty's mails, troops, "and stores" betweeix Halifax or Quebec and Hong Kong, and " for the hire and purchase of vessels as cruisers or transports" (a contract affording good examples of onerous "Admiralty clauses," including a covenant to build vessels witli gun-platforms and other fittings re- quired by the Admiralty, and to sell to that dei)artment if recpiired), the Lords of the Treasury expressly declare that the scheme is "not justifiable upon postal reasons alone " —what does justify" it being, of course, its great political and strategical value. But it is unnecessary further to labour the point, admitted on all hands, that the postal revenue is made to pay, and pay heavily, in subsidies, for purposes that are absolutely unconnected with the postal 30 UNIFORM DirERLlL POSTAGE. service, and tluit the rates on letters by subsidised routes were kept iit the exorbitant rates tluit ruled until this year, and aie still kept at a rate as live to one higher, wei<^rht for weight, than on inland letters, to meet this great expenditure. On what ground, either of justice or expe- diency, on what ground at all, are writers of letters to the over-sea countries of the Em])ire, rather than any other section of Her ^Majesty's subjects, taxed to pay tlicse charges ? The international obligations entered into under the Postal Union Convention constitute the other great obstacle to the desired reform, and it is one of the most serious nature. These operate in two ways. The first of them is fiscal, and is on a par with the fiscal obstacle to reduction presented by the subsidies. The Postal Union entails heavy charges on the J3ritish Administration, and the Post Office seeks to recoup itself for these, as for the charges in respect of subsidies, out of the pockets of the English correspondents who use particular lines. The engagements entered into with regard more especially to tiie conveyance of the Eastern mails have proved especially onerous. The charL'-es imposed by these en- gagements were avowed as a reason for kee])ing up the Eastern rates to English letter-writers at their former high rate ; and the same reason will, of course, be given among others for declining to make any further reduction. This state of things was acquiesced in by the Post Office as an inevitable and almost as a satisfactory part of the natural order of things. The circumstance that our Administration paid the piper Ibr the French and Germans to dance to was solemnly adduced by the present Post- master-General as a com]detely adequate answer to the complaint that the Pritish lettei -writing public was mulcted in rates a hundred per cent, higher than those of France and ( Jerraany. "J /or/ior/'," he will of course argue, " this state of things precludes his rLducing the rates to a lower figure than that charged by France and Germany" — even though it be within our own Empire. Before quitting the fiscal difficulties caused by the Postal Union Convention a word must be said upon one OBST.icrA':s in rni: way. 31 of the lar<^est factors in the sum. This is the extremely and most unnecessarily high transit dues paid to France and. Italy in respect of the overland service to Brindisi. The fact that our Administration allows itself to he mulcted in sums running into tS(),()0() and ti)0,()()U a year for these dues is on(! of the most disastrous features, fiscally, in the whole aspect of the Postal Tnion system. These sums are alLOgctlier out of proportion to the services rendered, being, in fact, " dues " exacted under the Union arrange- ments by the Postal Administrations of the two countries concerned, France and Italy, who pay over to the railway companies who do the work only a small proportion (and even that a much higher one than is warranted by the market value of the services rendered) of the sums received from the British llovernment. Fiscally, this is another and a most serious blot on our Administrative management, and an example of the fatal influence of the international Postal Convention upon our interests. The other great obstacle to extending the inhmd rate of postage throughout the rest of the Empire presented by the P jstal Union is one resting upon a provision of the Convention of Paris which, if the Post Office reading of it be correct— ad as against that Office itself at any rate we may assume in argument that it is so — interferes with our Imperial liberty of action in a very grave manner indeed. As a preliminary but insurmountable barrier to any reduc- tion below the Postal Union rate of i^d. between difierent countries, though all part of one Empire, that are parties to the Postal Union, the Post Office points to the treaty obligations entered into under the Convention of J'aris, with reference to the provision in that Convention fixing the rate at :2!d. If this be really the case, it is enough to condenni the ]*ostal Union outright from an Imperial point of view, and the sooner we get out of it, with all its detrimental provisions, the better. It is an infringement of our liberty of action wiinin our own Empire precisely analogous to the case of the Commercial Treaties, which similarly place an international restriction on inter-imperial arrangements. The [)riuciple in the latter case is now con- demned on all hands, and the treaties embodying it are m UXll'oU^f im'KUIAL I'OSTAOI^. lio Postal Con- about to !)•' mncnd'd aecordiiiL;'!}-. Tf tl vontion .Mnbodies a like principle, it should nv l.ke nmnner be condenuiod and lunv international terms made. But it is worth enqnirin- wlirther there may not be some d<)ubt as to the soundness of the construction f ccepted by the Pos? Office, and whether, if it be sound, the difficulty cannot nevertheless be surmounted by some means short of the onlv course visible to Mr. Paikes <>f ^^-}^^ .^ altoirether'the Postal Union, which has its uses m other andlnternational directions. In a lett.'v fr..in the PostmaM-er-( Jenrral* which was laid before the Imperial Conference in 1-87 there oc- curred the foUowmo- passaj^e :-" L nder he mternatimnil Convention of IS/S, the rate of posta-e between any two countries in the Union cannot be less than :l, centimes (about :2.M., more ov less, accordino- to eiirrency) An- w.rinu- a' Muestion of Mv. Watts, m the House o Coin- mons Mr. Kaikes,on March 10th, 181)0, expressed himsel in these wor.ls :-'• Although the question has n«>t yet been definitely decided, there is great reason to doubt it it would be conqietent to this country to reduce the ocean postal charge to its Colonies to Id. per letter without with- drawino- from the Postal Union, and thus destroying all the exTstin- posta^ arrangements with otuer civilised countries." ^ It will be at once J^^'^yd that Nvdiereas the question was treated as settled m the letter ot March l/t^ 18S7, ^Ir. Kaikes, three years later, tells us that tlu question has not yet been definitely decided, and tha ''there is -reat reason to doubt" it it would be competent to this country to take the proposed step without mcunmg certain consequences. However, that having been the result of consideration of the subject for the space ol three years less seven days, the lapse of the remaining seven days seems to have restored .Mr. Raikes's mmd on the sub-, iect once more to a conments for the adoption ol'a lower rate of postaL;-e. . . . Great Jh-itain could cer- tainly wilhdniW from the Postal Union hy g-ivin^^ a notice of twelve months, if Her ^lajesty's Government thoui^ht it wise to incur the risk of cutting off its postal arran^^ements with the rest of the civilised world." And so, api)arently, in ^Ir. liaikes's view, there is an end of the matter. It may he douhtful, however, whether the matter is to be thus summarily disposed (i. 1'he question is one of construction. The clause in the Convention hy which the rate is said to be fixed at " not less than 25 centimes," is of course Article 5, which provides that " The rates of posta«re for the conveyance of postal articles throughout the entire extent of the Union . . . are fixed as follows." Then follows, among others, the 2 5 centimes letter-rate. Article 5 is not the only one that touches the point. Article :3 })rovides : " The postal administrations of neigh- bouring countries, or countries able to correspond directly with each other without availing themselves of the services of a third administration " (which is the case of the United Ivingdom and probably every single part of ■ Empire) "determine by common consent the ccmditions of the conveyance of mails wdiich they exchange across the frontier, or i'rom one frontier to the other." All the Articles a})pearing to bear on the question are set out in a note below.* There is evidently a question of construction * Arficlos of flic Postal Union Convention (Univors.il Postal Union. Convontion of Paris. 1st Juno. 187S) ubovo irfei'iTd to. Ahtkmo V.-"T1i(> ratfs of postapo for tlio eonvcyancc of postal artiolos tliroiifrliout till' (>ntiro extent of tlie Unio'i. iiieliidini? tlieir delivery at tlie residence of tlie addressees in tlie e.,untri.'s of tiie Union where a delivery is or shall he orpuiised. are fixed as follows: — 1. For ]ett(>rs. -J.j eentinies in ease of pre])aynient, and double that amount ir the eontrary ease for eaeli letter, and for eveiy weight of C 15 granunes or fraetiiui of l-"> t;raninies u rxiFOinr niriutiAh I'OSTage. i to be misod upon the i)n)visions ot tlie Convention ; Imt it is not intended to enter into iircrument npon it liere The question has no doubt been under consideration ; and from tlu' inconsistent anssvers given to it by Mr Uaikes, there is yet room to hope that the opinion ot tlie J.aw ± For posteiu-ils. lit fontimos for single fiirds. or fur eiu-h or tlu- two ' Imlves of carils with roply paid. , 3 For i.rint..i imiun-s of ovn-y kind, c.o.m.unvi.-ilpai.rrs ;,..(! ^=""1"';^ oj m,.,vl,au.r.se. -. l-outiines f,.r ..u-I, artieU. or im.-b-t l.oar.n- a imrti. ula ...lihvss and for evory wi'i^'ht of 50 «rvainincs or traction .)t -.0 : uu uJs; ovid.-d th/t sucir arti..l. .»• pa.-k.t -loo. not contam any Lt e • or iuaims..rii.t n-.to l.avin;; tlu- du-u-a.-tov of a.-tual and i-rrsuna c.nrrespond,«nco. and tliat it bo made up iu siu-h a inanu..i- as to admit of its iM'in;' easily oxaniiued. " . , .. .. coiitiines por Tlio (diarL'o on ooinim-irial papers cannot be less than •)*; Tlie cliarfre on conimercu ^m^.v ...<..... , , , .i,..„ m ,.,mi times packet, and the ehargvon patterns or samples ..aiuiot be less than Id ctutinics ^''^^n addition to the rat.>s and tho minima tlxed by theprecediu- paragraphs, ''"'V"K:."t 'i^rui^o subieot to the sea transit, rates of 1. francs per kilogramme of letters or postcards, and 1 frauc P^-^k'^''^''"''';'"'' "^^ oth.r articles; a sur.diarge which may not exceed 2., centimes per sin.^te rate foi" lorters. 5 .uMitinu-s per postcard, and 5 centimes per oO graminesortractionofoO grammes for other articles. . 2 For every article conveyed l,y m.-ans of services maintained by (dministnitions foreign to the Union, or ot extraordinary ser ces in the Union giving rise to special expenses, a surcharge m proportion to those expenses. Airnci F III —The Postal Administrations of neigiibouriiig eouniries or eoimt rie able to eorropond di,v<.|ly with each other without availing -^^-i- 8 ves of the services of a thir.l Administration, determine, by common consent ?iio conditions of the conveyaiu-e of the mails which they exchange ncross the frontier, or from one frontier tt the other. , ,- * , „v..v.iTiPe Ii the absence of any cont -ary arrangenu'iit, the direct sea eon\evince bet. 'e wo ...luitvies b^^neav.s of packets or vessels depending upon oiio of Si 1 shall be considered as a third service; and tins con ye^mcejs^^^^ any performed between two otlices of the same country, le, * u' '""■'■';> of lea or territorial services maintained by another country ^^ J^,;^ "^ \ .; thv s iimlations of the following Article. (Article I\ .. which ^^'^^^^^'^^^ . mr'-eV be made bv the I'ostal Administrations for transi "f "^'" ' f >^''" Administrations. andMoes not refer to the rates of postage to be chaige.l.) Ai'TUir XIV.-The Postal Administrations of the yarieus coimtnes ..onmos 1. ' h,. Union are .■ompetent t<. draw up. by common consen. in the tSS Detailed Regulations'all the measures of order and detail which are ^'^'^ilL'S^rd-Administrations may. moreover. ,nake amongst tYinselves the necessary arran.nMuents on the subject of cpu-stions which .lo "o ;"n.v the Union g'enerally. pmvi.le.l that those arrangements do not derogate fiom ''•^ff "dmiSnulons cncerned are. however, permitted to come to mutual arrangeme; oO kih 'metro Its for the adoption of lower rates of postage w itiiin a radiii.i ^ OBSTACLES IX THE WAY. OfBcors may finally make out our position to be loss unsatis- factory than the one Air. Raikcs is aj)|)arentiy prepared to accept. But, assuiiiinn: that tlie Postal Union Convention really was such a .^'iy'antie 1)1 under as an adverse decision on this point would make it, but that nevertheless it is on the whole for the advantag'e of tlie T'nitcd Kingdom to remain under its term?- in respect of European and other I'oreiijn nations, it by no means follows that the alternative ])ut to the House of Commons by Air. Raikes as such a "clincher" is really the only one by which we may escape from the seemiuL,' dilemma. Mr. llaikes assiimes that if we wisli to establish a postal rate of less than ;2.^l. within the Empire, we can only do so at the expense of surrendering all the elaborate machinery provided for our correspondence with the rest of the civilised world. Sureiv tlu^re are less heroic remedies to be found? )ne, but it must be admitted not a very promisiui^ way out of the diiHculty, would be to ask the other cotnitries in the Empire whose com*^- mica- tions with foreign nations are of far less imp >r : nee to them than those with each other and with the mother country, to withdraw from the Postnl Union, and so re- establish Imperial freedom oF acti(m. But it is probably ho})elcss to expect the Post Office to turn its back on its own policy to such ai; extent as that ; and possibly some of the Colonies too may find .uses in the Postal Union. Another ])lan may be suggested which should be feasible enough. Ungland, it is said, ca*rtfOt afford to gi\'e up the Postal Union for her foreign correspondence. But is it too much to expect that Her Majesty's Government could, hy diplomacy and by the very strong pressure our own Postal Administration is able to bring to bear, as being the great ocean mail carriers of the world, as well as the largest and best paying castomers of other Postal Ad- ministrations, bring about a revision of those terms of the Convention, which, on the hyy)othesis, stand in the way of our freedom of action within the limits of our own Empire? If the Convention really does forbid a lower rate than the Union ;\ul., it is no great thing to demand that ihis rule should not aj)ply as between two parts of the same nation M iwinniM nwrjiiAL rosiwii:. or euipiiv. 'Hit' nations (•(•niposing- the I'ostal Union de- cline to irrnnt a r>ritisli Colony representation as a s<>j)ariite State, tli(> whole (\)loniiil Knipire liavini;- alx-ut as much representation as, s;i_y, Servia ( freece and K'oumania. Why should they he allowed to hi' >w hot and cold, hy refusiuir Tor other purjx^ses to treat the Colonies as one with the Uiisved Kini4'doin ? To maintain the restriction would do roreiiifn Po\\<'rs no i^'ood. They would continue to receive the same dues and payments for transit and other services as heretofore. Tlu' only difTerence would he that the IJritish countries would take less from their pnl)lic to re- coup themselves tor the cost of those dues and payments. 'I'he nuitter is one for diplomatic neii'otiation between the Ih'itish and the other Adn.iinistrations parties to the Postal Union C(»ii\cnt ion. It is submitted with some confidence that, if the \y\w const''uction of the Postal I'nion Conven- tion be to letter our freedom of internal communication within our own Mmpire in the manncu' su^'i^'ested, this is a state oi" thing's which ouL;-ht not to exist and must not be allowed to continue, and that ever}' effort should be made by the (Jovernment to t^'ct rid of these fetters bv some such means as tho^e imlicated, brinL^'ini;' eve rv available pressure to bear u])on the forei^'u Administrations who ha\-e nN III. One obstacle 1t» such a reform is the atVection of the Post Ollice for.the Ihiiversal Postal I'nion.aii intei-mitional institution. 'J'he outstandiuL;' Colonies are being' pressed to join the Union. If tlu>y i\o, the dilliculty of obtainiuL;' an Imj)erial system will be enhanced. UllSTACLI'JS L\ THE WAY. •.i7 The standing pavaniciint ol)stacl(' is the fiscal one, the use oi" the Post OlHce as a \\\civ:i> oL" raising;' revenue. Postal i'aeilitics, not revenue, 0UL;'lit to l)e the lirstaira of the Post OlHce. The increase oi" surplus above a o-iven sum ouo'ht to be approi)riated to L;'iving greater iacihties. The opinions ot Mr. bhaw-Lefevre and Sir Arthur Blackwood to that eil'ect are oi value. The application of increased surplus in relieiof general taxation is unfair to the letter-writnig public. The largest burden is at present mifairly thrown ou writers of over-sea letters. The cost of the Ocean Postal Services is excessive, and is not incurred for Postal purposes. The great items are tlu' subsidies and sums paid under the IVistal Tnion system. 'Vhc subsidies liave little relation to Postal service. The amounts paid on Postal Union account are exces- sive, especially the transit dues to France and Italy. The second great obstacle to relorm lies in treaty obli- o-iitions incurred' under the Postal Tnion Conventioii. *^ According to the Postmaster-Cieneral, these iorbid an inter- Imperial rate of less than the Postal Union rates. This position is open to (piestion. The obligations under the Postal Union are to be con- demned on Imperial grounds, and must be got rid of by amending the terms of the Convention. IV. PK( >rOSAL,S. Calculations, official and non-official, have been made, purporting, with varying results, to show the extent of the loss that W(nil(l accrue upon the introduction of a penny letter-rate. Xo attempt will be made here to reiider un- certainty more uncertain or confusion worse confoinided by adding- to existing tables further colunnis of hypothetical figures based upon the as-iumption that existing postal systems are, in all respects except rates of postage, to con- tinue unchanged for ever. A suggestion will be made presently Avh.ereby, it is claimed, the (juestion of loss may be put on one side altogether. ]\Ieaiiwhile it is sufficient to observe that even under existing mail contracts and present systems of postal administration generally, in connection with the Ocean Packet services, it is admitted that the additional loss to be incurred would only amount to a sum, the outside estinuite of which is £75, 000 a year. It has, it is hoped, been sufficiently demoistrated that it is unfair to continue to make up this or any other loss out of the pockets of those who have a Colonial correspondence. The causes of excessive expenditure which render the Treasury lofh to make any i'urther remissions, however just and reasonable, and the other obstacles in the way of establishing throughout the Emi)ire rates of postage uniform with those now obtaining in the United Kingdom, have also been fully pointed (jut ; and as regards the non- fiscal side of the obstacles presented by international obli- gations a means of removing them has also been ])roi)osed. As to the fiscal objections, enough, it is hoped, has been .said to establish the [)rinciple that even though further loss has to be incurred, it is not only Just to individuals but for the public benefit, in the interests, commercial, political, and >ocial, of the whole Empire, that such loss rROPOSALS. 39 sliould l)c incurred tur tlie sake of a uniform Britannic """'lu't l>ow much better would it Ih> il^ tlje end could be attained without any loss o£ revenue at all '. Is that possible? Th,. remamdcrot this paper slia I he devoted to explahiing the means by which, it is submitted, it may be rendered possible. It contracts were entered mt.i with regular lme» ot ■iteaniers on the various routes to carry postal matter on the basis ot weight, such contracts not contaming any ot those extraneous covenants the burden of which compels tlu. steamship owners to demand high rates of payment there is no rl'ason in the world why the conveyance of mail matter should be such an abnormally ^-Mf «»■« Pf «J ot business. Payment on a weight basis is, in 'tf f- ™ ^^ thin^"l^.'^ , °"X,. or non-coutracting steamers. In tne ease of tl^^ Aushat • asian contracts the rates are equiva ei.t t. 1»)™™' » subsidy lor special services under another form the amo int paM being in some eases as high as lis. per 111. lor letters ^'he rate" paid by our own Post OB- to non-contj. steamers for the conveyance of mails across * «^ f;' f ''^ ^ stated at one shilling and eightpence per lb ofle is. 11 e number of letters under half an ounce that leallj go to lake up a pound weight has been caleidated to average no thirl v-two but forty ; and, indeed, it is oovious that he umber must, in tile nature ot tl""fi-. «""- -'^l ^'j'J^ ''^^ thirty-two, since by no means every letter r,'=''''^^^X'o ," to the limit. The Post Office even here then, gets ,d^ ^ .. tell half-onnce, the ocean carriage ;>' - '-U -^ « exactly one-fifth of that amom.t. Uut the punciplc capable of very niuch bolder application. ' L there any reason why, in dealing w, 1. at an> e all but specially important and ^•^' ''^'''''7;'^: V ,1 f spondcnee, which could alTord and would he «■ '" V t necessary to pay soeeial registratuni or uisurance i.ihs tl 1 s M l'i«' 1'""'-' ""t t'-"^'' '>'"™^ '""'■'■ "' '' '" 40 UXIFuRM niPh'Uf.m I'OSTAHE. treats secou(]ary mail maitor, siid, a^' Looks, S:v., or convey theiii on someu-hat the sam. prineipl. as tliat appli.Ml to tile rarcel Post : ii It is not necessary to -o so far as to su-ovst that tlie mails should he '^ headed u^. in casks," an,l so stowed away— porl.aps ni the hold alon^' with steel mils and casks ot iortand cement. But there is no good reason why mails—Jcttei-s, hooks, newspapers, and all— sorted and separ-iod as you will— should not he made into parcels carefully packed in conveniently-sized Ija-s or boxes and shipped as '• Hrst-class cargo," consigned to tlm Post- masters-General of the several Colonies >)t tlieir destination It IS by packing a number or small parcels toc^ether in arger cases and sliipping th.Mii as ordinary " ca^-goods," that the -Globe Express" and other similar agencies haA^e long been able to convey small packages about the worUl at a trifhng cost to the senders and a considerable prolit o themselves The same system was in use many years ago l)y the P. and 0. Company in their " Indian Parcels iX'partment,^ and is now the one adopted (br the public larcels Post AMnit practical objection is there to the extension oi the principle to all cl.::ses of postal matter^ fepecia arrangements might be made for the conveyance of valuables ihese could be excluded-or at lelst any special risk lor them on the part of the Post Office or ship exclu.led-froin the onlinary means of conveyance. Special parcels could be made up of letters paving a higher fee by registration or (otherwise, declared valuable to the Ped Pills of Lading," undcM- which the ship would take the higher risk in consideration of receiving hi..-her ireight— as with bullion, jewellery, &c. Now ahout forty half-ounce" letters are calculated to make up a pound weight instead of thirty-two, as would be the case ,f every letter exa(.tly scaled up to the maximum. Upon one-ounce letters the proportion must be even greater, as the large majority would be still further below the maximum weight. Nevertheless, let the same propor- tion be taken, and twenty single-ounce letters be reckoned to a pound of such matt(-r. At a penny a-piece that gives rii'ni'OSALS'. 11 .W-C) per tun. There is, however, an important considera- tion on the otlier side to be taken into account in Jidoptinu^ the iidand rates all tln-ougli. A second ounce goes for a halfpenny, and each succeedino- two ounces for "another half])enn3'; so tlial" a fuur-ounce letter goes at the rate of a halfpenny an ounce, and heavier weights at fractionally decreasing rates compared with single-ounce lett(n-s. To arru-e at any trustworthy estimate of tlie proportions of the better and the worse paying letters is impossible. The deduction to be made must no doubt be considerable ; though here too the same allowance may be made for letters not scaling up to the ma.xinium paid for. To countervail the reduction to be made on this score, every other estimate and calculation is here made with a leaning the other way, so £lSf) a ton may stand for the present" and a general allowance be made afterwards. Book- packets at the inland rate of a halfpenny for the first and every succeeding two ounces would yield (with the san;e allowance i'or not scaling up to the maximum) say £40 per ton. Newspapers at a halfpenny for the first four ounces ar.d the same for every succeeding two ounces (like books) may l)e set down at half the book-rate, say £:2:] per ton. Out of every ten tons of books and newspapers to- gether, it may be calculated (upon returns showinn relative numbers, and tlierefore only giving an approximate estimate of relative weights) that eight tons consist of newspapers, and two tons of book packets. The eight tons of newspapers yield at the above rates £184, and the tvvo tons of books £9.2 ; making £.:27{) on ten tons of com- bme.l matter (say £27 iOs. per ton). A similar quantitv ol letters (ten tons) yields £1,860. Jhit here, again, we must not strike a simple average between thcvse two. lleturns fm- the year 188!) show that of the total weigh^ of mail matter despatched to Australia in that year, only rV.\ tons consisted of letters, against 513 tons of other matter. So that cmt of the 540 tons 1)1 per cent., or nearly nineteen-twenti(>ths, was matter paying at the lower rate. Take this as a basis ol' what the actual receipts of the 4g uxiFoii:\i nrrEniAL postage. Post Office would be upon tlie scale a'oove indicated, and we get the following results. Ninety-four per cent., or hard upon nineteen tons out of every twenty, of mail matter despatched to the most distant Colonic's (which may be taken as a sample of the whole) consist of books and new.spapers yielding , the highest freight to the most dis- tant pai-ts were ])aid all round and alfthe time— a margin ot one-hall would still be U-ft to pay the ordinary costs of collection and distrilnition and conveyance on shipboard riiOPOSALS. 4B Tt must be iulniittoa at once tliat the receipts of the Post Office under these rates would not cover the ex- ceptional cost of the trans-continental carria^^^e of the Eastern mails, even if these were reduced to a leiritimate figure. That would have still to coine out of the larger profits niade on other branches. But there is no reason why— if the Post Office would disentangle itself from its unfortunate engagements in respect of that transit, elsewhere discussed — the cost should continue to be enhanced by sending along that route, always and necessarily expensive as compared with sea transit, the whole vast bulk of its worst-paying matter, to which expedition is not of the same importance as to letters. Much, at least, of that might very well be shipped at Plymouth. The idea of calculating the payment to be made for the carriage of mails on the same basis as that on which freight for other cargo is calculated, is glanced at by Mr. Henniker Heaton in the supplement to Imperial Fcdcrafirm already referred to, though rather by way of illustrating an argument than anything else, and he does not formu- late any scheme on that basis, or propose the ai;olition of the fixed contract system. It is, perhaps, worth while to mention in passing, that the adoption of the system ad- vocated in the present paper has been ui.der discussion among members of the Postal Committee of the League for some considerable time past, and was publicly referred to in connection with the League in a letter which appeared in the Journal of the Society of Arts on 14th March, 1890. The results, as here i-r'ughly indicated, differ very materially from those at which I\Ir. Ihuiton would probably arrive. One reason for this is, that 'in his calculations of the proHt the Post Office might make with an ocean jienny letter-rate, he is speaking of half- ounce letters only, not ounce letters at the penny rate. Put what is far more important, ho makes no reduction, as there is in the inland rates, upon the second and every succeeding unit of weight. More than that, he leaves out of account altogether the cost of carrying books and news- 44 i'xrrni:]f TMi'i-nnji. I'dstmik. ])ii])('i-s. coiistitutiiii;' ahout niiu'tocu-twciitit'tlis of the total weight carried, I'ur which the Post OHice receives some- tliing like one-seventh of the umount receivable on letters. Xo wonder that, bv such a comfortable method, ir/iidi ■if/tifircs fill I lie fdclor^ in llic problem e.vcr/jl llir best-pa i/i /if/ Hewst in l/ie be-sf-paj/iii// lenlh pari, h(> is able to promise wonderfnl thino-s. The proposals here made can at least claim to be tempered by a sober regard for the realities of the case. These pro])osals will, nevertheless, probably sonnd revolutionary in the ears of l^ost Office officials brong-ht up in the tradition of treating nniil matter as something separate and apart, something almost sacrosanct, and ixMv,- gether diflerent in kind from the other more or less valuable goods carried on board ship. To ]-)a,ck up letters, like herrings, in a box, or send Her Majesty's mails in tin- lined cases, and call them " first-class cargo," will seem to such as these sheer profanity. Tet, to people outside the Post ()ffice, and perhaps to some inside, the idea appears so reasonable, so practicable, and at the same time so perfectly simple and obvious, that the wonder would be, if we did not remember the tenacity Avith which old habits of business are clung to, that it"' was not adopted and carried into effect years ago. On the part of the steamship owners again, and" especially the large companies, such a suggestion will jirobably excite expressions of execration and ridicule. They will tell us that without a "]\Iail- room " and other apparatus, supposed to be of such mysterious importance on board ship, Her JNhijesty's mails cannot be safely and securely carried; and that if they should be packed in boxes instead of in bags it would be impossible to ship and land them without delay, and no doubt much more to like effect. Jiut no one at all acquainted with the interior economy of a mail steamer will be greatly impi-essed. ?.Iail-rooms on some ships are occasionally used as extra smoking-rooms, at other times as extra baggage-rooms for passengvrs' baggage that is " wanted on the voyage," and the mail-bags are sometimes huddled up in one corner in the rooms so occu])ied, and sometimes put elsewhere altogether. Nor is a canvas-l)ag PROPOSALS. I'not iihvays easily tlisting'iiishal)le from a rcH-cptacle i'oi' soiled linen) the most iJeall}' sate form in wliieh to trans- |)()rt and trans-ship valuable matter. For all that, if the Post Office officials or the ships' officers are wedded to the idea of bail's, the continued use of them would not seriously impair the adoption of the general phm suii^»j^ested. And if they like, at the same time, to i^ive the name of mail-room to the ])artieular section of the 1. :tween-decks space occupied ')y the mail portion of the " ffrst-class cargo," there could be no possible objection to their doing so. On the score of expedition in handling, there is no doubt an advantage in bags over boxes, especially in the rapid transfers made on the quick route between Jioudon and Brindisi. Some allowance too may always be necessary l'(.)r the case of sorting " en route." IJut, as just observed, the particular vehicle used for packing in is not of the essence of the matter. And somehow i)assengers' baggage in boxes gets taken out from between-decks and put over the side without much loss of time — and mails c..uld always be put out tirst and as f[uickly as now, whatever the basis on which the}' are paid for, so long as the amount be not less but sometliing more than charged for other lirst-class goods. Steamship companies are ruled by business con- siderations, and if the Postmaster-Cfeneral offers them cargo and pays the higl>f>st rate of freight upon it accord- ing to its class, and something over for special facilities, they certainly will not refuse it. The Post Office would be no mere chance customer. On all the principal lines the mail carii-o would be both re^nilar and constant in ((uantity, and arrangements would be come to by the ( JtKce with the ship-owners just as in the case of any other laru'e and regular customer. To carry out this })roposal would involve the with- drawal of the great subsidies in their ])resent form. Subsidies will continue to be granted to secure the polit- ical and military ])urposes which are their principal ob- ject. The sums so to be paid must be arrived at independ- ently, and may be met out of Post Office surplus or any other fund the Chancellor of the Exi q^ m iiy determine — provided only they are not debited as ■Hi L'XlFoliM IMl'EUIAL POSTAGE. workini;- ('\])i'iisi's of tlu' Postal S(»rvico and roconpod by charges on correspondence. Jiut no payment in tlie fori'n of snbsidy must be ])aid under any fixed contract in respect of the carriag-e of mails. I'ayment for th(' postal covenants undertaken by the Steamsjup Companies must be conlined to the amounts ay general agreement under the Postal Union to the payment of exorbitant transit dues to the Administrations of France and Italy, but it has, in consideration of some reduction made "in those dues, conceded besides a monopoly of the whole of its Eastern Mails to their agency. In consequence of this rnorosALS. t7 lattci- ohli^'iitioii the Post Office, wlicu two yours ago it decided to o])eu the clieaper alternative "all-sea route " to Australasia, found itseU" precluded from using Tor this ])ur- pof'O its (KyU mail steamers going direct through the Medi- terranean, already under contract to carry any amount (»C mails entrusted to them, and had to he content with the longer and slower route round the Cape. Could anything more glaringly show up the helpless state to which the Postal Union Convention has reduced our Adi^nnistration in respect of Imperial communications ? At present we pay to B''rance and Italy an enormously enhanced price for the actual railway services over and above the ])rice received by the railways themselves, the two (iovernments concerned themselves getting the benetit of the difference. They, so to speak, farm the railway mail service in their own countries for their own great profit. If the lines that are used to transport the mails across the Continent were the only ones available for the puri)osc, there might be no help for this ; but such is not the case. An alternative and equall}' convenient route is open as far as the Italian frontier, by way of Ostend, through Belgium, Luxembourg, and so down through Switzerland and the St. Cothard tunnel, and thence, rif/ Milan, to Brindisi. AVhat is there to prevent our Bost Office availing itself of tliis competing route? Under the Bostal Union (and in this respect probably no comj)lete revision of the principle could be eflected) it must still continue to deal with the Postal Administrations oi the countries concerned, l)ut arrangements might perhaps be made, on payment of a royalt}' to these (fovernmei:ts, for passing closed mails through their territories under " bonded seal," so to speak, the actual carriage being paid I'or upon terms made direct with the railway companies. We should at any rate give Fnincc the go-by ; and it is the French Office that proves so exacting, and is the cause of the ])resent attitude of the Italians also. Dealing with Italy directly and in conjunc- tion with other countries more inclined than France to deal in a liberal and friendly way with us, we might obtain vastly better terms. 4» rxiroiiM iMi'innAfj i'dstace. Tftl 10 ])(»litical and inilita.ry sulj.sijie.s w ere no lonjTor takoM into account in rcciconinu- tlie cost of tlic Packet Services, and the cost of \\ '(•can uropean transit reduc .iu\ui;iiLcu iiuove in Tiie system ol mail carriaL;-e, we sliould hi-ar no more of the loss'to the Depart- ment in tliis l)rancli of the Postal Sei payment to the mail steamsliij) owiici vice. Tf, further, the s were made on a commerci 1 il basis, as sun'^-ested here, with additional ])re- niums not more than adequate to the special dered, or the s])ecial obliy-ations undertaken— a sulKcient service rcn- case, it is submitted, has b belief that the ocean s^ rvic eon made out to warrant th ino- if not actuallv remunerat es mio-ht be made seIf-su))))ort- ive _ Before concluding;-, it may ])erhaps be permitted t point to two matters of principle which fundamentally dis tiuLniis h th e views here advocated from the Ocean P ennv ost, with which the name of Mr. Henniker Heaton is so closely associated. The lirst and most distinctive of tl is that the Imi)erial Federation JiC n^irely u]K)n Im])erial principlesr Mr. Heat lese li'-ue rests its ari-'uments on s aims June orio'i for the most part, been rather cosmo])olitaii. Kis nal schenuMjf an Ocean Penny Post is international. ome account of which was ])ub]ished and his latest eflbrts in the Bcc!,',i' of A*t>r/r/r.s- last autumn, have \-eturned ivowedly to that basis, eoinmencini;- with the inclusion in merica. In tl le con- his scheme of the United States of A.. _. ^,, tribution made by him to Tnipcrlal Fcdrra/ion last Auy-ust he naturally went more upon Imperial lines, but not alto- ^•ether. In an editorial introduction to ^Mr. Heat contribution (which filled a twel ournal wrote as foil OWS a r\^ :on's valuable ve-page sup])lement) that .U'arded the Postal and Telegrapl The Leaiji'ue has alwaA re- us of the first i mportance in maintain lie Services of the Hm|)ire m*!' aiu I st reii Lit lien - ing- the Imperial connection ; and it is satisfactory t"o find that in this, the latest and most inportant of his puldished statements, tlie writer of the paper we print this month s on this aspect of should rest hi s case so much as he doe the question. For :\Ir, li.'nniker Heaton, thouo-K a I'nopos.ins. m ineinlxM-of'tlic l.eao-uo, and lioldin^^ iiseiit on its Council, is, first and above all, a Postal licforiner, whilst mombors of the Jiea^'ue, as such, are Imperialists first and Postal Kefbrmers after. . . . Tlioone important matter of principle on which we certainly differ from liim is that in respect of whicL a Canadian correspondent criticised liis scheme in the dune iiundjer of this .Journal — the inclusion of the United States. As we said at the time, this is to miss the core of the whole movement from the point of view of tlie Leai^nie, v.-hich is its Imperial character. Let us have a penny post to the States by all mea)v . We ouirht to have it; and so we oucrht to France— anu Germany too, for that matter. Hut let us do one thin,-,' at a time and tliat which most concerns us, and that is— oettino- a penny post within the Empire. That accomplished, our work in this direction IS done. We must leave it to some leairue or body, not national but cosmopolitan, to labour for an international penny post. Mr. Heaton thinks it would be ridiculous to pay more for a letter to the States than for a letter to Canada.^ We do not see it. It is because Canada is part of the Empire we should choose to cstal)lish a cheaper rate between it and the United Kiiio-dom, and other parts of the same Em])ire/' The other ])oint is not (juite so clear, nor, from the presL.it point of view, is it of so much importance. The reduction of all the rates within the Emj)ire to that obtaining' in the I'nited Kino-dom is advocated as the lei^itinuite expansion of Rowland Hill's princij)les, ■ in- cludino- that of " making the i^^ood pav for the bad." ' iVlr. Heaton professes to ])e a follower of" Rowland Plill. But he uses ar^-uments incomjiatible with the recoo-nition of this p,rinciple. in the contribution to the journal of the J^eague, for instance, just above referred to, s])eakiug of the cost of the Trans-Ccmtinental liailway service, he says :--" in any e-ise. :is the IJrindisi route is not required lor the Canadian, American, West Indian, and South Airican services, it is clear that the necessity of making up the £.").e,^(MI referred to does not concern them in any way. And again, ''The sums jjaid to France antl Italv tt>ik(MH) last year) are chara'ed I) against the Colonial and so ILMFORM IMI'EIIIAL ]'()STA<;E. foreig'ii sorvico as a whole, and thus one of the two reasons why a reduction ol' postaf>-e is refused on tlie North American service is tliat tlie Indian and Australian service is so expensive.'" The ar^^ainient used in the jiresent paper is, that tlie loss of au}^ ])articularl\- expen- sive hranch shonhl be l)orne hy the whole correspoiulence of the Eni])ire equally. Mr. ifeaton a])pears to hold that ir should he borne exclusively by the correspondence on the ex])ensive route itself. These two diilereiu'cs are fundamental, and to these may be added the practical dilVerence already alluded to, in that his proposals extend to letters only, and to carrying- them at a penny for the lirst and every succeedinoint remains to he noticed. Colonial (Jovernments, as is well known, malce a loss and not a gain upon their post olKces. It was always doubtful there- fore how far they would Iv prepared to face further loss by making any reductions in their .ceanic rates, Mr. Goschen's proposal in ^Nlarch last w, is made, at the time, conditionally u])ou tlu' Colonies falling into line and agreeing to make the redi'<_'tion reciprocal. It soon how- ever became evident that, the IvxcluMjuer and the IN.st OlHce having once given wav on the point, the peo])le'*of this country Avould insist upon having the reduction, whether tlioso in the (.'oloiiies ol)taine(l the same boon from their own (ioveninu'iits or not. Similarly, with further nductioiis, it is the pe()j)le of this country who are commercially most interested in having the rates' as U)w as ])Ossible, and there seems no nood reason why the Mothi-r Country should not in this matter take the lead, even though not all the C()lonies should at once see their way to lollow it. I'mler the arrangements now obtaining, there is no accounting b>r postages between one Adminis- tration and another. Kach one kee])s its own |)ostages, making what it can, or what it cliooses, of >uch receii)ts, and from them i)ayinn' its outward expenses and the expense of distributing all inward mails from whatever source. One country therefore has no interest in \ le r/,7)/'nN. (/,>'. &t {imoniit of |)ost;i^-(' (-liar^vd hv auotlur ; and tliougli it would ini'e throughout the hm])n-e, not onlv (Uitwards, l)ut inwards, and also betwe(>n the \;iri((U'^ (»\-er-sea <'- of the whole ar^'u- ment is the immense im])ortance — on liig'b i»'rounds of Imperial policy aHectinL>' our commercial, political., and social develo])nient — of increasinm' to the utm(>st the facilities of communication between the scattered com- munities of the IJritish Empire. This principle was recog'uised aud ])artiall_y acted upon in the reform oi (^olonial postao-e rates recently introduced bv the Chancellor of the FiXchequer, wIhmi the old policy, obstructiv<' ot such inter-communicatiou, was ])artially departed from. (:J) The reduction o\' rates then made involved the admission of two fundamental ])rinciples hitherto olliciallv opposed. One of these is tlu> surrender by the lv\- che(puM' of a sub.stantial portion of the o'vowiuir Post Ollice surplus, for the purpose of i^ivinn- increased ])ostal facilities to the public, instead of devoting- the whole of it to tin' relief of i^'eneral taxation ; the second being' the admission of the riu'ht of correspondence within the f]mpire, but outside the I'nited Kingdom, to slia''e in the advantage thus afforded. Though th(>se jxjints were C(»nceded in j)rinciple, the ap])iication of the j)rinciples was partial Only and insullicient. (;3) The existing distinction for|)ostal j)ur])oses between tbe Tnited Kingdom and other ]iarts of the Empire is an anachronism. The expansion of England and the growth in facilities of locomotion demand the e.\tensi(»n of itoulaud o4 r\iriii:M imi'IIuial msTM.i:. Hill s princlpli's ()V(M'tho wider uvo,uT;i])liic-;il aiva of to-dav. 'IMiosc principles, so Far as iiiatcriaj to tlic present purpose, were ( I ) the recognitioii of tli(> i)repo)K]eraiice of teritiiiial charges for k'tters over tlie cost of their transportation, and the consequent Justice and advantage of .'(pialising postal rates over long and short di stances, \;.\) " takinn- the rougli with the smooth " and '• making the good ])av for the hacl" Those ])rinciph's are as applicable to the whole Empiiv to- day as tliey were to the I'nited Kingdom fifty years ago. hut to apply them without pecuniaiy loss the Post Oltice must get out of many traditional habits of conducting the Ocean Packet sei-vice*. (!•) The adhesion of all parts of the Empire to the International I'ostal Union wliereby the Imperial rates would necessarily be aisd remain assimilated to and regu- lated by the Postal Union rate, is the solution aimed atljv the Post Office authorities. The i)rincii)al groups (".f Colonies at ])resent outstanding are South Africa and Australasia, and these are invited to attend a Conference of tlie Postal I'liion in .May of this year with a view to joining it. The effect would be to make ''it more diificult than at present to shake off the trammels of the Postal I'nion. 'Hie Postal Union Convention, as it .stands at present, presents a fatal barrier to the realisation of a uniform Imperial system. There are other obstacles t(» Ix' dealt with before this is discussed. (5) The standing obstacles to a uniform Imperial post within and without the Cnited Kingteamship owners and companies for political and military purjioscs, the charging of these i)a\- ments t.. debit of the woiking expenses (.f the Post Ollice, si;mmaj{y. 55 and tliL'U srekiiii^ to nuiko iq) Tor tluit bv chari>-ini,^ hi^-li rates on tli(3 ocean service to ilici correspondents who use them. {(■) The onerous oblii^'ations und(>rtaken by the Post Office in providin!^ mail facilities Tor international as well as Imperial uses under the Postal IFnion, and the enorm- ous tax paid by it to France and Italy in respect of the transcontinental mail service. {(/) The contention on the part of the Postal Union, ap])arently acquiesced in by the Post Office, that between dillercnt countries belono-ini,'- to the Postal Union, even though ])arts of the same Empire, nothing- less than the Postal Union letter rate of .'2 .Id. and other re^^ulation rates for other matter may ])e charg-ed. The correctness of this view seems open to fpu^sti(jn ; but if it is correct the Con- vention must, in Ih'itish Imperial interests, ho amended in this respect. (0) Even under existing postal arrangements, the loss to be incurred by making the rates to tlu' otlier parts of th ' Em])ire uniform with those in the LTuited Kingdom is admittedly small. And whether small or great, to charge it to the particvdar branch of the corres])oiidence that now ])ays it is indefensible in principle. Without any complete change of system, by ceasing to regard the whole of the subsidies as part of the cost of })ostal achninistration, only a small proporticm being pro])erly so accountable (whethei- or not they continue to be paid out of the tal surpbas is iiiimaLerial), and by etl'ecting retrenchments in respect of the Postal Union undertakings, the present apparent loss could be wiped out or materially reduced. (7) Hut something better still miuiit be done b\' a radical change in the traditional nu'thod of treating nuiil matter in the Ocean Packet services. The tixed contract system at ])resent in vogue should be abolished, and con- tracts for the carriage of th(> maiN made upon ordiiiary commercial |)rinci])les aiul at freights approximating to those current for other lirst-class and valual)le cargo, based upon the amount carried. Some additional remuneration \\t)uld still l)e necessarv in consideration of s])ecial pri- vileges to be accorded to mail matter, aiul the assumption 60 UNIFOllM nfPEHTAL VOf^TAGE. by sliipovyiiers of certain special obligations, but this, for "reasons given, would not bo large. (^) The reforms here advocated rest on grounds of Tm|)erial i)olicy and are in every jiarticular the logical, natural, and practical development of JJowland Hill's principles. In these respects and in others the views of the Imperial Federation League and the schenn; here advanced ditl'er from the jjroposals of Mr. Henniker Heaton . (U; The objection that the Colonies are not likely to reciprocate is susceptible of two answers. If thev see tlieir way to doing so without iurther hjss they will' certainly reci})rocate at once. Even if they do not, "half a loa7 is better than no bread." and the iirother Country should lead the way in estaljlishing the cheap and uniform rate outwards, leaving the Colonies to follow suit when they see their way to doing so. ^ Finally, what is aimed at is tlie attainment of a great object, most beneficial in every respect commercial, political, and social, U the Cnited Kingdom itself and to the Empire as a whole, even though the super-surplus of the Post Oliice be diminished to ])ay for it. But if the Post (Mice will abandon some bad L.irgains and some worn-out traditions there need be no loss at all. The Postuiaster- <}eneral should be pressed from ;dl sid(>s to k(H'p Imperial requirements in vi(>w in the negotiatidus to be entered u])on at the Conference that me.'ts in Vienna next month. I'lMMii. v.\ ('a--i:i,i. .V r,,M|.\.N\. Lmhiiii, Ik Um i i, Sm\\, i.. l.nMM.s, lO.e i / (^ i---.->>^---v^--,--'>---'.- -"-■■-".-•■:-%