annum to the contractor. Would it not be possible to have these vans made at Woolwich Arsenal and driven by Post Office officials or soldiers? The Post Office has already a staff of highly skilled mechanics in its engineering department.
P.M.-Gen.: If the Post Office were a private business of course I would do this. Tell the writer that I will give the matter careful consideration. But it would involve such a disturbance of well-settled routine that I see little hope of adopting it.
Sec.: A writer asks that registered benefit societies should be permitted to open current accounts at the Post Office Savings Banks.
P.M.-Gen.: I will consider this. Their money cannot harm us.
Sec.: Someone alleges that the late Sir W. Harcourt thought that all Post Office expenditure for sites and buildings should be carried to a capital account and spread over several years instead of being defrayed out of current revenue.
P.M.-Gen.: He did; but, though a great man, he was never Postmaster-General.
Sec.: Somebody at Norwich begs that the "cash on delivery" system should be introduced.
P.M.-Gen.: Tell him it is feared the stores would flood the country with goods and ruin local shop-keepers. I do not myself fear it, but you are not to reveal that.
Sec.: One from Edinburgh begs that the commission on foreign and colonial Money Orders should be reduced. He points out that from Paris to London a penny is charged for commission on a five shilling
