Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/328

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
276
SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON

order by the French Post Office; but from London to Paris the English Post Office charges fourpence for commission on a five shilling Money Order.

P.M.-Gen.: Tell him I am of opinion that fourpence is a fair charge for such a convenience. These Scots are very keen to save a bawbee. Hint very delicately that it is open to him to reside for the future in Paris.

Sec.: A colonist thinks that the parcel rates to the Colonies should be made uniform and greatly reduced. There are thirty-eight different rates to the seventy-four countries in the list based on no common principle, the charges being in most cases higher to our Colonies than to foreign countries.

P.M.-Gen.: The Post Office is primarily a letter-carrying agency, and senders of parcels are not entitled to dictate our arrangements. In my opinion the Colonial Parcel Post tariff is a model of symmetry and liberality.

Sec.: A peremptory person demands that the repeated applications of the Australasian and other Colonies for an exchange of Postal Orders between Great Britain and her dependencies should be immediately complied with.

P.M.-Gen.: Colonial ideas are not necessarily to prevail here. Did they not try to force Preference on us? Tell him that of all the wild and visionary Imperialistic schemes—no, say merely that there are grave objections to his proposal.

Sec.: A philatelic collector states that the present illegible, indistinct, and smudgy postmarks on letters cause general dissatisfaction. The clean and distinct American postmarking machine should, therefore, be introduced in the British postal service.