Rs.A.P.Not exceedingRs. 10020ExceedingRs. 10,but not exceedingRs. 25040"Rs. 25" "Rs. 50080"Rs. 50" "Rs. 750120"Rs. 75" "Rs. 100100"Rs. 100" "Rs. 125140"Rs. 125" "Rs. 150180
Rs.150 was the maximum amount of a money order. Redirection was permissible, but such redirection did not affect the original office of payment, and this could only be altered by the payee signing the order and sending it to the office of preparation with an application for the issue of a new order payable to himself or anyone named by him at some specified office. A new order was issued, but a second commission was charged for this service. Money orders lapsed at the end of the month following that of issue, but were still payable for two months after lapsing if a second commission was paid; upon the expiry of that period they were forfeited to Government.
Certain special conditions with respect to money orders were (1) that not more than four could be issued to the same person by the same remitter in one day, except under special permission from the Compiler of Post Office Accounts, and (2) that under special orders the issue of money orders could be refused by any post office. Foreign money orders were granted on the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, Heligoland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Italy.The maximum amount was £10, and the rates of commission were:
Rs.A.P.Not exceeding£2080Exceeding£2but not exceeding£5100"£5" "£7180"£7" "£10200
For Canada the rates of commission were doubled.
In 1884 the Telegraphic Money Order system was introduced, with a charge of Rs.2 for the telegram exclusive of the money order commission upon the amount to be remitted. The charge was so high that it was thought safe to allow a money order up to Rs.600 in value to be sent by this means. The anomaly thus existed of having Rs.150 as the limit of an ordinary money order and Rs.600 as the limit of a telegraphic money order. The rule prohibiting more than four money orders daily being sent by the same remitter to the same payee, besides being quite unnecessary, proved no safeguard whatsoever. In actual practice the name of the remitter was not entered in the money order receipt, so that the post office of issue had no means of knowing how many money orders were sent by the same remitter, unless they were all presented at the same time. There was really no necessity to fix a low limit to the amount of a money order, as the whole procedure was quite different from that previously followed by the treasuries. The old treasury rule was that the amount of money orders issued in favour of one person in a district treasury must not exceed Rs.500 in one day, but then the money order was like a cheque payable to bearer and the paying treasury had no knowledge of the time at which it would be presented.The Post Office, on the other hand, carried its own money orders and, if the office of payment was short of funds, it could hold back the money order until funds were obtained, and do so without the knowledge of the payee. These arguments prevailed, and in 1889 the restrictions were removed. The maximum value of an ordinary money order was raised to Rs.600, and no limit was placed upon the number which could be issued in favour of any one person. At the same time the rates were modified as follows:—
Rs.A.P.Not exceeding Rs.10020Exceeding Rs.10, but not exceeding Rs.25040Exceeding Rs.25—4 annas for eachcomplete sum of 25 and 4 annasfor the remainder, provided that,if the remainder did not exceedRs.10, the charge would be 2 annas.
On the 1st April, 1902, after a great deal of pressure from all classes of the community, Government reduced the commission upon a money order not exceeding Rs.5 to 1 anna.
The extension of the money order system to the payment of land revenue was first tried in the Benares Division of the North-West Provinces at the suggestion of Rai Bahadur Salig Ram, Postmaster-General, in the year 1884, and proved an immediate success. In eleven months, 13,914 land revenue money orders were sent, the gross value of which amounted to Rs.3,35,904. The system was a great advantage to small proprietors who lived at a distance from the Government CollectingStations. They found that the use of the ordinary money order for payment of revenue dues was not acceptable to the subordinate revenue officials, who suffered the loss of considerable perquisites thereby. Such remittances were generally refused on some pretext or other, either because they did not contain the correct amount due or else because the exact particulars required by the Land Revenue Department were not given on the money order form. To meet this difficulty a special form of money order was devised and the co-operation of District Collectors was invited. In 1886 the system was extended to the whole North-West Provinces except Kumaon, and a beginning was also made in ten districts of Bengal. The action of the Post Office was fully justified by results, and revenue money orders were quickly introduced into the Punjab, Central Provinces and Madras. In Madras they proved a failure, and were discontinued in 1892 after a three years' trial. The system was again introduced in 1906, but it still does not show any great signs of popularity, the figures for 1917-18 being 10,293 revenue money orders for Rs.1,29,400.
Rent money orders were first tried in the North-West Provinces in March, 1886; an experiment was also made in Bengal in October, 1886, and the system was extended to the Central Provinces in 1891. Except in parts of Bengal and the North-West Provinces, now known as the United Provinces, the payment of rent by money orders has never been popular, and the reason is not far to seek. Rent in India is usually in arrears and, whenever a tenant pays money to a zemindar (landholder), the latter can credit it against any portion of the arrears that he thinks fit. With a rent money order, the case is different,the money order itself and the receipt which has to be signed by the zemindar indicate exactly the period for which rent is being paid, and to that period it must be devoted. This is the ordinary ruling of the rent courts and does not at all meet the wishes of zemindars who want to have their tenants in their power. Besides this important factor, there is the rooted objection of all subordinates, whether they be government servants or zemindars' agents, to be deprived of the time-honoured offerings which all self-respecting tenants should make to the landlord's servants at the time of paying their rents, and the appearance of a postman with a sheaf of money orders, however punctual the payments may be, is hardly an adequate substitute for the actual attendance of the tenants themselves.
In 1886 the plan of paying money orders at the houses of payees was adopted and proved very satisfactory. India was indebted to Germany for the idea, which not only conferred a great boon on the public but tended to reduce the accumulations of cash at post offices and to accelerate the closure of money order accounts.
In Appendix "E" is given the number and value of inland money orders issued in India from 1880-81 to 1917-18, and the steady increase from year to year is a certain sign of the great public need which the Indian money order system satisfies, and of the confidence that is placed in it.
On the 1st October, 1884, the public was given the opportunity of employing the telegraph for the transmission of inland money orders, and during the first six months of the scheme 5788 money orders for Rs.3,75,000 were issued. The cost of Rs.2 for the telegramand ½ per cent for money order commission was a decided bar to the popularity of the telegraphic money order, which at first was chiefly used in Burma and Madras owing to the isolated positions of those provinces. In 1887 the Post Office relinquished its commission on orders for sums not exceeding Rs.10, and the telegraph charge was reduced to R.1. This led to an immediate increase of traffic, the number of such orders in 1887-88 being 45,417 compared with 18,540 in the previous year, more than half of which were issued from Burma. In 1917-18 the total number of telegraphic money orders issued was 875,000 and the value Rs.6,22,00,000 of which about three-fifths came from Burma. With the improvements in railway communication in India which are continually taking place, the pre-eminence of Burma in the matter of telegraphic money orders is likely to continue owing to her isolation and the largely expanding trade of Rangoon.
The ubiquitous swindler was not long in taking advantage of the telegraphic money order to ply a profitable trade. His chief resorts are Benares, Rameswaram, Tripati and the other great places of pilgrimage in India; his victim is generally some unfortunate pilgrim, who is only too anxious to meet an obliging friend willing to act as a guide and adviser in one of the sacred cities, and the procedure adopted is always the same. The swindler acts the part of the kind stranger and finds out all the details of the pilgrim's family. He then goes to the local post office, represents himself to be the pilgrim and sends a telegram to his victim's relations to say that he has lost his money and wants a certain sum at once. So confiding are the people of India that it is very seldom that a request of this kind does not meetwith an immediate response, and the swindler, by waiting a couple of days during which he takes good care to ingratiate himself with the post office officials, walks off the richer by a considerable amount. The earlier reports of the Post Office on the telegraphic money order system abound in cases of the kind, and very stringent measures were adopted to put a stop to the practice. Identification of payees by well-known residents of the neighbourhood was insisted upon, and a payee of a telegraphic money order had to prove his claim and give satisfactory evidence of his permanent address. Despite all precautions, the telegraphic money order swindler is still common enough and manages to get away with large sums from time to time.
Probably in no country in the world is the poor man so dependent upon the Post Office for the transmission of small sums of money as in India. The average value of an inland money order in 1917-18 was Rs.18, and it is not infrequent for amounts as small as Rs.5 to be sent by telegraphic money order. The reason undoubtedly is the facility with which payment is made and the absolute confidence which the Indian villager places in the Post Office. An Indian coolie in Burma, who has saved a few hundred rupees and wants to return to his village, seldom carries the money on his person, and he has a strange mistrust for banks; they are much too grand places for him to enter. He usually goes to a post office and sends to himself a money order addressed to the post office nearest his own home and then he is satisfied. It may be months before he turns up to claim the money, as he frequently gets a job on the way back or spends some time at a place of pilgrimage, but he knows that his money is safe enough and he is quitecontent to use the Post Office as a temporary bank to the great inconvenience of the Audit Office. It is not too much to say that the money order system of India is part and parcel of the life of the people. They use it to assist their friends and defy their enemies. They have in that magic slip of paper, the money order acknowledgment, what they never had before, that which no number of lying witnesses can disprove, namely, an indisputable proof of payment.
The first Government Savings Banks were opened at the three Presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay in 1833, 1834 and 1835, respectively. These Banks were announced as intended for the investment of the savings of "all classes British and Native," the return of the deposits with interest being guaranteed by Government. Between 1863 and 1865 the management of the Savings Banks was transferred to the Presidency Banks, and each Presidency framed its own rules. The first deposits were limited to Rs.500, and upon the balance reaching this sum it was invested in a Government Loan. The limit was gradually increased to Rs.3000 with interest at 4 per cent, but, as it was found that many people deposited the maximum amount at once, a rule was brought in prohibiting the deposit of more than Rs.500 a year in any one account.
In 1870 District Savings Banks were instituted in all parts of India except Calcutta and the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay. The limits for deposits were fixed at Rs.500 a year with a total of Rs.3000 and interest at 3¾ per cent was fixed. In December, 1879, revised rules were drawn up for District and other Government Savings Banks, the most important change being that the limit of a deposit account was raised to Rs.5000 andinterest was fixed at 4-1/6 per cent. The result of these rules was to attract to the Savings Banks a large number of deposits which should have gone to other banks, and in 1880 the monthly limit of Rs.500 with a maximum of Rs.3000 was again imposed and interest was reduced to 3¾ per cent.
The proposal to establish Post Office Savings Banks on the lines of those which existed in England met with great opposition, especially from the Comptroller-General. The same arguments were brought forward which the opponents of the Post Office Savings Bank Bill in England used when Mr. Gladstone managed to get this wise and beneficial measure through both Houses in 1861. In 1882 the first Post Office Savings Banks were opened in every part of India except Calcutta, Bombay and the head-quarter stations of Madras. In Madras, savings banks could be opened by the Director-General, provided they were not within five miles of a head-quarter station. The immediate consequence of this measure was an increase in the number of savings banks in the country from 197 to 4243. The minimum deposit was fixed at 4 annas, and interest was allowed at 3 pies a month on every complete sum of Rs.5; it was also arranged to purchase Government Securities for depositors. The end of the first year's working showed 39,121 depositors with a balance of Rs.27,96,796.
On the 1st April, 1886, District Savings Banks were abolished and the balances transferred to the Post Office, but the Local Government Savings Banks at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras remained in the hands of the Presidency Banks until the 1st October, 1896.
In 1904, when the balance at the credit of depositors exceeded 130 millions of rupees, the Government ofIndia began to be rather nervous of being liable to pay up such a large sum at call without any warning. A sudden rush of depositors to withdraw their savings would tax the resources of Government to the utmost and, in order to afford some protection, a rule was made that an extra quarter per cent would be paid upon deposits, which were not liable to withdrawal until six months' notice had been given. Needless to say, the bait did not prove attractive. The additional interest meant practically nothing to small depositors and was poor compensation to large depositors for the inconvenience of having their money tied up for six months. What the measure did involve was a great increase of work and account-keeping for little or no purpose, as the number of accounts subject to six months' notice of withdrawal never exceeded 3 per cent of the total. These accounts were abolished in 1908 and, although the Government of India does not keep any special reserve against the balance in the Post Office Savings Bank, the depositor has the satisfaction of knowing that his deposit is guaranteed by the whole revenue of the country.
The history of the Post Office Savings Bank in India is rather monotonous. With a single exception it has been one of continual prosperity and expansion from 1882, the year of its commencement, to 1914. The balance on the 31st March, 1914, was over 231 million rupees, and, as the money belongs very largely to small depositors, who can demand immediate payment, the bank is placed in a very responsible position towards the public. It will, therefore, be of advantage to examine the political and economic crises which have occurred in this period, and how they have affected thesmall depositors' confidence in the Government of India.
In Appendix D is given the number of accounts and the balance year by year from 1882 to 1914, which shows that in no year have the accounts failed to increase in number and only in 1897-8 has the balance at the credit of depositors declined. Yet during this period three important crises occurred. The first was in 1885, and was known as the Russian Scare, the second in 1896-7 when India was visited by the worst famine on record, and the third in 1907-8 when a great wave of sedition and discontent spread over the country.
Two of these crises were political and one economic, and it is a remarkable fact that the effect of the former two was felt almost entirely, and of the latter very largely, in the Bombay Presidency. This circumstance goes to prove that the inhabitants of Bombay are more in touch with the affairs of the world than those in other parts of India.
The Russian Scare of 1885, culminating in the "Penjdeh Affair," led to very heavy withdrawals from almost all the more important savings banks on the Bombay side. No less than Rs.2,93,000 were paid out to depositors in the Presidency Savings Bank from the 1st to the 22nd April. The withdrawals in March from Ahmedabad, Kaira, Broach and Surat totalled Rs.2,80,000 against Rs.1,10,000 in March, 1884, and the excess of withdrawals over deposits for the whole Presidency in January, February and March amounted to Rs.9,50,000. The rest of India was not affected by the scare, in fact the total number of Savings Bank accounts increased by 38,000 and the balances by Rs.59,00,000 despite the heavy deficit in Bombay.
The crisis of 1897 was purely economic and was due to a widespread famine and abnormally high prices. Its effect was felt in the Savings Bank for three years, the balance falling from Rs.9,63,00,000 in 1896-7 to Rs.9,28,00,000 in 1897-8, and not reaching Rs.9,64,00,000 until 1899-00. The Bombay Postal Circle accounted for Rs.30,50,000 out of the Rs.35,00,000 deficit in India, the other deficits being in Madras, the North-West Provinces and Oudh, and Bengal.
In 1907-8, as I have already mentioned, the country was full of unrest. Leaflets calling on the men to mutiny were being distributed broadcast among the Indian regiments. Several Sikh regiments were supposed to be seriously disaffected. The feeling in Bengal against the British Government was being carefully nurtured, but the real head-quarters of the anti-British movement was Poona. In 1908-9 the balance of the Savings Bank increased by Rs.5,00,000 only, which meant a serious set-back considering the way in which the Post Office was developing, but the figures for the Bombay Postal Circle are peculiarly instructive. The number of accounts actually increased from 264,558 to 271,604, whereas the balance at the credit of depositors declined from Rs.4,41,00,000 to Rs.4,30,00,000, the actual decrease being Rs.11,46,388. Now in this year Bengal showed an increase of nearly Rs.2,00,000, and the decline in the proportional rate of increase in India was found to be due to the heavy withdrawals of some depositors in Bombay. There is reason to believe that a number of wealthy persons belonging to the commercial class use the Post Office Savings Bank in Bombay as a convenient place to deposit money. This class of depositors numbered 12,198 in 1907-08 and 12,503 in1908-09, which is larger than in Bengal. Such people do not deposit their money from motives of saving or thrift, but merely take advantage of the convenience which the Post Office offers as a safe place to keep, at interest, money which can be immediately realized. The rule which permits a depositor to have accounts in his own behalf or on behalf of any minor relatives or any minor of whom he happens to be the guardian has opened a way to great abuse of the system. There is nothing to prevent a man having any number of imaginary relatives and opening accounts in all their names. He can deposit the maximum in each account, and naturally in times of crisis or when money is tight the Savings Bank has to face the immediate withdrawal of all these amounts. As one example of what is done, a case came to light some years ago in which a depositor at Dharwar was authorized to operate on eighty-three accounts with a balance of nearly Rs.30,000. He was a broker by profession and it was quite possible for him to control a balance of Rs.2,00,000 in the Post Office, if he wished to do so. Further inquiries made at the time elicited that one depositor at Bijapur controlled forty-two accounts, another at Surat thirty, and another at Karwar nineteen. Such persons are really speculators and are a danger to the Savings Bank, and it would be interesting to know what proportion they hold of the total deposits in the Bombay Circle. These deposits represent a very high proportion of the total in India, so that the action of any strong body of depositors in Bombay has a very serious effect on the balance of the Savings Bank.
The examination of transactions for the thirty years previous to 1914 has this satisfactory result that, with theexception of the undesirable element in Bombay, a political crisis, at any rate, seems to have no marked influence upon the great mass of depositors in India. The number of depositors on the 31st March, 1914, was 1,638,725 with a balance of Rs.23,16,75,000. The outbreak of the war with Germany, however, had a disastrous effect on the Savings Bank balances. When the announcement was made that the German Government had temporarily confiscated the Savings Bank deposits in that country, a regular panic ensued and within a few months about 100 millions of rupees were withdrawn. The action of the Government of India, however, in meeting all claims in full did a great deal to allay public fears, and a certain amount of money came back later in the year, but the balance on the 31st March, 1915, had declined from about 231 to 149 millions of rupees. Since then there has been a gradual recovery, and the balance on the 31st March, 1918, was nearly 166 million rupees. The recovery would have been much quicker but for the large sale of five-year cash certificates in 1917-18 on behalf of the War Loan. The price received was about 100 million rupees, of which a considerable portion was withdrawn from Savings Bank deposits. At the same time the small depositors were busy purchasing cash certificates with money that would otherwise have been put into the Post Office Savings Bank. Now that the War is over and the rush for cash certificates has ceased, there is every prospect that the Post Office Savings Bank will shortly regain its former popularity.
There is no branch of the Public Service that comes into such close contact with the people as the Post Office. Its officials are consulted in all kinds of family troubles, they have to deal with curious superstitions and beliefs and to overcome the prejudices ingrained by an hereditary system of caste. The official measure of the successful working of the Department is gauged by the annual statistics, but the real measure of its success may be learned from the attitude of the people themselves. The Indian villager dreads the presence of the Government officer in his neighbourhood, but he makes an exception in the case of Post Office employés. The postman is always a welcome visitor and, if he fails to attend regularly, a complaint is invariably made.
It is in the delivery of correspondence throughout the smaller towns and rural tracts in India that the Post Office has to face some of its most difficult problems. Towns in India, with the exception of the Presidency and more important towns, are mere collections of houses, divided into "mohullas" or quarters. Few streets have names, and consequently addresses tend to be vague descriptions which tax all the ingenuity of the delivery agents. Among the poorer classes definite local habitations with names are almost unknown, and thebest that a correspondent can do is to give the name of the addressee, his trade and the bazaar that he frequents. Such cases are comparatively simple, as the postman is usually a man with an intimate knowledge of the quarter, and the recipients of letters have no objection to be described by their physical defects, such as "he with the lame leg" or "the squint eye" or "the crooked back"! Real difficulties, however, arise when articles are addressed to members of the peripatetic population consisting of pilgrims, boatmen and other wanderers. There is an enormous boat traffic on the large rivers of Bengal and Burma. The boat is the home of a family, it wanders over thousands of miles of channels carrying commodities, and letters to the owner rarely give anything except a general direction to deliver the article on board a boat carrying wood or rice from some river port to another. The pilgrims who travel from shrine to shrine in the country are also a puzzle to the Post Office, and in sacred places, like Benares, special postmen have to be trained to deliver their letters.
The forms of address are seldom very helpful for a speedy distribution and delivery of the mail. The following are characteristic of what a sorter has to deal with any day:—
"With good blessings to the fortunate Babu Kailas Chandra Dey, may the dear boy live long. The letter to go to the Baidiabati post office. The above-named person will get it on reaching Baidiabati, Khoragachi, Goynapara. (Bearing.)""To the one inseparable from my heart, the fortunate Babu Sibnath Ghose, having the same heart as mine. From post office Hasnabad to the village of Ramnathpur, to reach the house of the fortunateBabu Prayanath Ghose, District Twenty-four Parganas. Don't deliver this letter to any person other than the addressee, Mr. Postman. This my request to you.""If the Almighty pleases, let this envelope, having arrived at the city of Calcutta in the neighbourhood of Kulutola, at the counting house of Sirajudin and Alladad Khan, merchants, be offered to and read by the happy light of my eyes of virtuous manners and beloved of the heart, Mian Sheikh Inayat Ali, may his life be long! Written on the tenth of the blessed Ramzan in the year 1266 of the Hejira of our Prophet, and despatched as bearing. Having without loss of time paid the postage and received the letter, you will read it. Having abstained from food and drink, considering it forbidden to you, you will convey yourself to Jaunpur and you will know this to be a strict injunction."
"With good blessings to the fortunate Babu Kailas Chandra Dey, may the dear boy live long. The letter to go to the Baidiabati post office. The above-named person will get it on reaching Baidiabati, Khoragachi, Goynapara. (Bearing.)"
"To the one inseparable from my heart, the fortunate Babu Sibnath Ghose, having the same heart as mine. From post office Hasnabad to the village of Ramnathpur, to reach the house of the fortunateBabu Prayanath Ghose, District Twenty-four Parganas. Don't deliver this letter to any person other than the addressee, Mr. Postman. This my request to you."
"If the Almighty pleases, let this envelope, having arrived at the city of Calcutta in the neighbourhood of Kulutola, at the counting house of Sirajudin and Alladad Khan, merchants, be offered to and read by the happy light of my eyes of virtuous manners and beloved of the heart, Mian Sheikh Inayat Ali, may his life be long! Written on the tenth of the blessed Ramzan in the year 1266 of the Hejira of our Prophet, and despatched as bearing. Having without loss of time paid the postage and received the letter, you will read it. Having abstained from food and drink, considering it forbidden to you, you will convey yourself to Jaunpur and you will know this to be a strict injunction."
The three addresses given below have been taken from letters posted by Hindus to Hindus, and it will be noticed that they merely bear the names of persons with no indication of the place of delivery.
"To the sacred feet of the most worshipful, the most respected brother, Guru Pershad Singh!""To his Highness the respected brother, beneficent lord of us the poor, my benefactor, Munshi Manik Chand.""To the blessed feet of the most worshipful younger uncle, Kashi Nath Banerji."
"To the sacred feet of the most worshipful, the most respected brother, Guru Pershad Singh!"
"To his Highness the respected brother, beneficent lord of us the poor, my benefactor, Munshi Manik Chand."
"To the blessed feet of the most worshipful younger uncle, Kashi Nath Banerji."
It is not uncommon for Europeans to receive letters with honorific titles added to their names, in fact itwould be considered impolite to address an English gentleman in the vernacular by his mere name. Such a thing is never done. Whatever address is given by the writer, the Indian postman has his special methods of noting it. He seldom knows English, and when names are read out to him by the delivery clerk he scrawls his own description on the back in a script that can only be read by himself. A well-known judge of the Calcutta High Court, Sir John Stevens, was much amused to find that the words "Old Stevens Sahib" were constantly written in the vernacular on the back of his letters, this being done to distinguish him from his younger colleague, Mr. Justice Stephens.
A story recently received from the Persian Gulf explains how it is that letters sometimes fail to reach their destinations despite the greatest care on the part of the Post Office. The incident is worthy of theArabian Nights, and I will quote the account given by the sub-postmaster of Linga.
"On the 8th of December in the year 1912 a well-known merchant of Linga, Aga Abbasalli by name, informed me that his agents at Bombay, Karachi and other places in India had informed him by telegraph that for the last two weeks they had received no mails from him. He asked for an explanation from me for this, indirectly holding me responsible and even threatening to report me to you, for he maintained that the letters he sent to the Post for many years past had, at least, always reached their destination, if late, and that he could not now for his life imagine as to how it was that the several letters which he himself sent to the Post, by bearer, for the last two weeks, were lost during transmission. As Abbasalli was known to me, I sent word to him throughsomebody to the effect that, in the first place, he would do well to examine the bearer with whom he sent his letters to the Post. The bearer was thereupon called by him and confronted with the question of his mails; but before quoting the silly dolt's interesting reply it would be better to note the following few points:—
There are two identical terms in Persian, the "Poos" and the "Poost," which have three distinct meanings, the word "Poos" meaning a dock, or, in such a place as the port of Linga, only a shelter for ships' anchorage, whilst the word "Poost" meaning (1) hides and skins, or leather and (2) the Post Office. As far as pronunciations are concerned it has been a very indiscriminate colloquialism at Linga to pronounce both the above said words alike as "Poos," without any regard to the final "t" of the word "Poost"; and practically, therefore, the word "Poos" has three separate meanings as quoted above. The "Poost-e-Buzurg" or the "Poos-e-Buzurg," literally equal to the big Post Office, is used by the mass of people for the British Post Office at Linga, as distinct from the Persian Post Office, which is known as the "Poost-e-Ajam." But to many again the "Poos-e-Buzurg" is known as the big dock, also styled the "Poos-e-Aga Bedar" (Aga Bedar's dock), in contradistinction from another which is smaller, and is only known as the "Poos-e-Bazar," that is, the Bazar dock. Moreover, both the big dock and the British Post Office are situated somewhere near Aga Bedar's Coffee shop, the latter being, however, a little farther than the dock.
Having noted these points I now beg to revert to the question put to his bearer by Abbasalli and the former's reply thereto. "What did you do with my mails, thatI gave you, for the last two weeks, to be conveyed to the 'Poost'?" asks Abbasalli in his vernacular, and the bearer replies, "The first week when you told me to carry your letters to the 'Poost' Iwentto the shoemaker's and was putting themexactlyamongst the 'Poost' (meaning leather and leather-ware), as ordered by you, but, he won't let me do so, and said I should carry the letters to the 'Poos-e-Buzurg' near Aga Bedar's Coffee shop." "Ah! you blockhead, you," explained the exasperated merchant, "but, what did you do with my letters after all when he told you to carry them to the 'Poos-e-Buzurg'?" "Why, rest easy on the point," says the bearer, "I carried them exactly to the 'Poos-e-Buzurg' (meaning the big dock) and threw the letters in. The first time when there was plenty of water in the dock (on account of tide) I had simply to throw your letters in, and I am sure they must have reached their destination quite all right; but the next week, when there was but little water in the dock, I had to dig a pit in the sand to put the mails in, and perhaps they may not have reached their destination."
Poor Abbasalli was quite perplexed and awfully sorry to know that all the valuable letters written by him for the two weeks, some containing cheques even, as I am given to understand, were thus entirely washed away by the merciless waves; but, no less embarrassed am I, on hearing of the tomfoolery, to think of what blame it may sometimes accidentally and unnecessarily entail on a Postmaster, and I therefore venture to put this real story before you, with the fullest hope that, in future, complaints of a like nature may kindly be considered only on their due merits.
I may be allowed to add that the story was related byme before H.B.M.'s Vice-Consul and the small European Community at the Linga Club, and they all, while sympathizing with me in my perplexity, enjoyed a hearty laugh over the recital.
On the 31st March, 1918, there were over 19,410 post offices and 49,749 letter boxes in India to serve a population of 319 million people in an area of 1,622,000 square miles. This gives a post office to about every 16,000 persons, or to each 83 square miles of country, which seems a very poor service by comparison with Western countries, but, when one considers that the literate population of India is only 18,500,000, the service is good and the prospect of future development with the increase of education is enormous.
It must not be supposed, however, that the Post Office confines its energies to the literate population. It is largely used by people who can neither read nor write, and this is made possible by the existence of professional letter-writers, who are to be found in every town and village in the country. For a pice (farthing) they will write an address, and for two pice they will write a short letter or a postcard or fill up a money order, though slightly higher fees are charged if the letter is very long.
In rural tracts where it is not worth while to maintain a post office, the people are served by a letter-box or by a village postman who makes periodical visits and acts as a travelling post office. It is a wonderful achievement of the Department that there is scarcely a village in India which does not lie within the beat of a village postman. The competition between villages to obtain post offices is often very keen, and a Postmaster-Generalhas many a troublesome decision to make, as to which of two or three neighbouring villages is to have the honour conferred upon it. While the matter is yet undecided the competitors vie with each other in pouring correspondence into the nearest post office in order to show the postal importance of their respective villages, an importance which is apt to decline sadly when once the post office has been opened. On one occasion, when Postmaster-General, I received application from two villages A and B for the opening of post offices. There happened to be an office in a village C close by, but the applications stated that this village was separated from them by a river, difficult to cross at most seasons and quite impossible during the rains. The inspector who visited the locality reported that the river could be crossed dry-shod at most seasons and with little difficulty during the monsoon, but that A was a much more important place than C and that the post office ought to be transferred there. A fresh complication was then started, and the indignation of the villagers in C knew no bounds. They threatened to carry the matter up to the Viceroy, and for the time they began to post enough letters to justify the existence of an office in the village. The dispute was finally settled by establishing an office at A in addition to the one at C, on condition that one or the other would be closed if the postal work done did not justify its continuance.
One of the most important duties of a Superintendent is to watch carefully the work of village postmen. Statistics are kept regularly of the articles delivered and collected by them, and these statistics give a very true indication of the places where new post offices are required in rural tracts. In this way the Departmentkeeps in touch with the whole country, and a special grant has been allowed by Government for opening experimental offices in places which show signs of needing permanent ones. An experimental office is opened for a period of six months and, if it leads to a development of correspondence and pays its way, it is made permanent at the end of that time, but unless it is a complete failure the experiment is extended up to two years in order to give the people of the neighbourhood every chance of retaining the office. This policy has been most successful and has taught the village people that they are largely responsible for the maintenance of their own post offices. The postmaster is invariably a local man, either the village schoolmaster or a shopkeeper, who gets a small salary, which, combined with the dignity of His Majesty's mails, gives him a direct interest in making the office a profitable concern.
The annual statistics of the Post Office serve as a barometer of the prosperity of India. The Department has entered into the lives of the people with its lines of communication, its savings bank, money orders, payment of pensions and sale of quinine. It has only one aim and that aim is recognized by all, namely, to do the greatest good for the greatest number.
The conditions under which postal articles in England and India are delivered differ so vastly that a knowledge of Indian life is necessary in order to understand the difficulties that lie in the way of good delivery work in this country. The smart official walking four miles an hour and shooting the contents of his satchel into every house on his beat with a rat-a-tat is unknown. House doors in India have no knockers and no letter-boxes, and among the better class inhabitants, both European and Indian, it is customary to send messengers to the post office to fetch the unregistered mail, so that to this extent the postman's work is reduced. The balance of the articles received by him often forms a strange medley in many languages, of which perhaps he is able to read one with difficulty. In a large town like Calcutta letters are received addressed in as many as a dozen different languages, and special clerks versed in the various tongues have to be employed. Luckily people of the same race are accustomed to congregate in the same quarters of the town, and the postmen are able to get some of the local residents to assist them in deciphering many a doubtful address. In Bombay certain private delivery agencies exist, which are recognized by the Department and which work very satisfactorily. Onthe whole the distribution of letters to the public is performed in a leisurely fashion which is quite in accordance with the national character. One may often see a postman, with the assistance of a dozen of the literate inhabitants of the quarter, spelling out from a dirty piece of folded paper an address, which turns out to be one Gunga Din living near the temple of Hanuman in the courtyard of some ancient who has died years ago, but whose name is still perpetuated in the soil where his house once stood. Gunga Din may be dead or vanished, the quarter knows him no more, but his sister's grandnephew arrives to take the letter, and after some haggling agrees to pay the 1 anna due on it, for such letters are invariably sent bearing. This little episode being finished the postman proceeds on his beat to find another enigmatical addressee, and is it any wonder that, although his salary is often a low one, the Indian postman is one of the most expensive delivery agents in the world? He seldom delivers more than three hundred articles a day, and in the Indian business quarters of the town he gets rid of the majority of these at the post office door, since the merchants and others who expect letters always waylay the postman just as he is proceeding on his beat, knowing well that it may be many hours before he will find it convenient to visit them at their houses.
In the matter of slow delivery, however, the public are more frequently to blame for delays than the postman, especially in the case of articles which have to be signed for. Parcels, money orders or registered letters are taken at the door by a servant and, if the sahib is at his bath or busy, there is a long and tedious wait before the signed receipts are brought back. It is extraordinary how callous people are in this respect towards the interests of the Post Office and their own neighbours, while they are always ready to complain if the smallest delay or mistake occurs to any articles for themselves. It can be easily understood that where such conditions prevail, and that is all over India, fast delivery is impossible, and the very best regulations for getting the men quickly to their beats are useless when they are detained unnecessarily at every house.
COMBINED PASSENGER AND MAIL MOTOR VAN. KANGRA VALLEY SERVICE
COMBINED PASSENGER AND MAIL MOTOR VAN. KANGRA VALLEY SERVICE
In India most money orders are paid at the door by postmen, and in towns, where there are large payments to be made, special sets of postmen are employed for the purpose. The rules regarding the payment of money orders are very strict and, when the payees are not well-known persons, identification by a respectable resident is insisted upon. In large pilgrim resorts, like Benares, where the pilgrims are continually getting remittances and are necessarily unknown, there is a special class of professional identifiers, consisting chiefly of the innkeepers. These men for a small fee are always ready to swear to the identity of any pilgrim for whom a money order has arrived, and, strange to say, they are often ready to pay up if it is found that their identification was incorrect and that the money was paid to the wrong person, a not unfrequent occurrence.
The postman, however, has to bear the brunt in case of the identification not being complete, and his responsibility in the matter is great. The convenience to the public of having their money brought to their doors is considerable, but it is a source of continual anxiety and expense to the Post Office. Large sums of money are entrusted daily to men on small pay. When the limit, which a postman is allowed to take, is exceeded, an overseer has to accompany him on his beat. Accountshave to be kept with each of the money order postmen and must be settled before the day's cash can be closed. Complaints of short payment are frequent and necessitate detailed inquiries with usually very unsatisfactory results, while the opportunities for blackmail are unlimited. Despite these drawbacks, it would now be scarcely possible to revert to a system by which everyone who received a money order was obliged to take payment of it at a post office, although greater security for both the public and the Department would be gained thereby. In certain parts of the country rural delivery is effected with extraordinary difficulty. On the North-West frontier the village postman goes in danger of his life from trans-border tribesmen. In the forest tracts of Central India the attacks of man-eating tigers are not merely travellers' tales, but grim realities. In the riverine districts of Eastern Bengal the postman has to go from village to village by boat, and a storm on one of these immense rivers is a bad thing to face in a frail canoe. Nor is the boat journey the worst trouble; a long tramp from the bank through swampy rice and jute fields is often the only way to a village which has to be visited twice a week. It is no wonder that the village postman sometimes takes the easiest way of delivering his letters by going to the most important place in his beat on market day; for, if he cannot find the actual addressees there, he is pretty sure to find some people from the vicinity who are willing to take charge of their neighbours' correspondence, but often not too careful about delivering it. Hence the origin of much trouble, complaints and hard swearing. Half a dozen witnesses are always forthcoming to affirm that the postman visited the villagein propria personaon that particularday, and to prove it the visit book with the signature of one of the perjurers is produced. How can the mere negative evidence of another half-dozen stand against these convincing proofs?
On the Malabar side of the peninsula, where a very strict form of Brahminism prevails, persons of low caste are forbidden to enter the quarters of a town occupied by Brahmins, and care has to be taken to place these quarters in the beats of high caste postmen. In Palghat there was almost a riot on one occasion when a postman of inferior caste attempted to enter a Brahmin street in the performance of his duties, and the Postmaster-General was promptly called to order by the indignant inhabitants. It was nearly a question whether he should be fined and compelled to feed a thousand beggars in accordance with the custom of the caste, but, on proving that he was an indigent member of the Indian Civil Service with a wife and family in England, he was pardoned on admitting his error and promising that no repetition of the offence should occur.
As a rule the Indian postman is reasonably honest and, if not interfered with at an unseasonable moment by an over-zealous inspector, his accounts will come out square in the course of time. The maintenance of a private debit account with the Department at the expense of the payees of money orders is not unknown. The usual practice is to withhold the payment of a certain number of money orders for a few days and to use the money for some profitable speculation, such as cotton gambling or betting on the opium sales. Recently one of the most respected postmen in the Big Bazaar of Calcutta was found to have overreached himself in carrying out this policy. He was on a very heavy money order beat, andused regularly to keep back a number of money orders and forge the payees' receipts so as to satisfy the office that payment had been made. He kept a private account of these, and when he decided to pay any one whose money had been withheld he filled up a blank form, of which plenty are always available, and took the payee's signature on this. The practice continued for some time and, as everyone got paid in turn and the postman was a most plausible fellow, no complaints were made. At last his speculations went wrong, he got into very deep water and an unpleasant person complained to the postmaster that he had not received a money order which he knew to have been sent weeks before. This led to an inquiry, and the postman, being caught unawares, was unable to account for about 17,000 rupees' worth of money orders due to various people in the city.
One of the great problems of the Post Office in large towns is to arrange deliveries and beats of postmen so that people will get their letters in the shortest time after the arrival of the mail trains. It used to be thought that the best way to effect this purpose was to have several delivery centres in order that postmen might be near their beats and the waste of time in walking to the beats be avoided. To enable this to be done, the Railway Mail Service was expected to sort all postal articles into separate bags for the different delivery offices. The principle is excellent in theory, but in practice it has not worked well and has led to indiscriminate missending to wrong delivery offices. For instance, Madras at one time had twenty-six delivery offices and, if people could have been induced to address their correspondence to one of these offices with the word (Madras) in bracketsunderneath, there might have been some hope of it being properly sorted by the Railway Mail Service, but probably 80 per cent of articles were simply addressed to Madras with or without the name of a street, so that the sorters were set an impossible task and the General Post Office had to maintain a special staff for sorting and conveying such letters to the offices from which they would eventually be delivered. The present policy is to have as few delivery offices as possible, and to have postmen conveyed to more distant beats. This has proved far more satisfactory; it relieves the work in the R.M.S., enables the postmen to be kept under better control and reduces the possibility of articles going astray.
While working at the best arrangements for delivery at Calcutta Mr. Owens, late Presidency Postmaster, devised the system of what is known for want of a better name as "continuous delivery." Every beat is provided with a locked box placed in a shop or some suitable place in the beat, and the letters for delivery are placed in this box by messengers sent direct from the post office. The postman goes straight to his beat and remains on duty there for six hours, he finds his letters in the box and is supposed to make the complete round of his beat every hour, delivering articles and clearing the pillar boxesen route. When he returns to the locked box he finds a fresh consignment of letters for delivery, and deposits those that he has collected for despatch, to be taken away by the messenger on his next visit. The system is a good one and has worked well. It saves labour and, if the beats are properly supervised and the postmen work conscientiously, a great quickening up of delivery is effected. If, however, supervision is at all lax, humannature asserts itself, postmen are inclined to loiter and they allow letters to accumulate so that one round can be made to do the work of two. Owing to the difficulty of supervision, the continuous delivery system has not many ardent supporters in the Post Office at the present time.
The postman is, in fine, one of the most important factors in the Department, and upon his energy and honesty much depends. It therefore behoves the authorities to see that a good class of man is recruited. In addition to being able to read and write the language of that part of the country in which he serves, he should know enough English to be able to read addresses easily, but in order to obtain this class of man careful recruitment is necessary and a good initial salary with reasonable prospects of promotion must be given. Much has been done in recent years to improve the status of postmen and all branch postmasterships, which are not held by extra-departmental agents, are now open to them. This is a great step forward. The Department used to be very parsimonious in the matter of uniforms, and in many important offices postmen had to pay for them themselves. Nor was there any uniformity even in each circle about the uniforms supplied by Government. In one town red coats and blue turbans were seen, in another blue coats and red turbans, in another khaki coats and nondescript turbans, while the men who supplied themselves with uniform presented at times the most extraordinary appearance. The pattern of postmen's uniform has now been standardized for each circle, and uniforms are supplied free of cost in all head offices and large sub-offices. Warm clothing is also given in all places with a cold climate. There is no doubtabout the value of a uniform to a postman. It adds a certain amount of dignity to him and, like the soldier, he is the better man for having a distinctive badge of office. The pay has recently been greatly improved and much has been done to ameliorate conditions under which they serve. There are over 27,000 postmen in India; the interests of these men are identical with those of the Department, and their welfare should be the aim of every postal officer.
"I don't think" was the terse though somewhat vulgar reply of a well-known district officer on the western side of India when asked if he would like to have a post office erected in a conspicuous place at the head-quarters of his district. He was willing to give the site in question for a clock tower, a public library or even a statue of one of his predecessors, but a post office, "No, thank you." The reason for this attitude may be easily understood by those who have seen the ordinary Indian post office of a few years ago. It used generally to be a rented building quite unsuited for the purpose and made perfectly hideous by small additions and projections constructed from time to time in order to meet demands for increased space. The windows and doors were used not for light and air nor even for giving access to the interior, but for business purposes. They were blocked up with the exception of a small hole just the size of a pane of glass, through which the members of the public had to try to get a clerk to attend to their requirements. When a Government building existed it was very little better, except in the matter of repairs. The interior of the ordinary post office was a dreadful sight a few years ago, a mass of untidy tables, a large number of cupboards, known in India as almirahs, ill-designed sorting cases and dirt, thislast article being the most prevalent everywhere. Letters were sorted on the floor for convenience, and the delivery table with its ragged occupants, who did duty for postmen, was a sight for the gods.
The position of a post office in a town is a matter of the first importance, but the chief object of the authorities in the early days of the Imperial Post Office seems to have been economy. As a building in a back street naturally costs less than one in a main street, many of the city offices are hidden away in the most inaccessible slums. It is, indeed, a case of Mohamed and the mountain, and the Post Office, secure in its monopoly, was not going to afford any unnecessary conveniences to its clients. Many of my readers will doubtless recall some of those upstairs offices in big cities, which do an enormous amount of work, especially in the afternoon, the approach being a single staircase just broad enough for one person to ascend. Imagine the turmoil at the busy hours of the day. In Bara Bazar, Calcutta, and Benares City, two famous instances which come to mind at the moment, where there is a heavy despatch of parcels, the confined space round the parcel windows was the scene of a petty riot every afternoon. Such a state of affairs could not exist for a month in a country where the better class of people perform their own post office business; unfortunately in India all this kind of work is done by native messengers who are not particular about the surroundings of an office and usually have plenty of time to spare. Things, however, improved in recent years under the direction of Sir Arthur Fanshawe and Sir Charles Stewart-Wilson, both of whom had the critical faculty strongly developed. Assisted by the genius of Mr. James Begg, Consulting Architect to the Governmentof India, they have done much to improve the modern post office, with the result that the Department now has some really fine buildings. For beauty of design the new Bombay General Post Office, completed in 1910, is one of the finest in the East. The reproduction of it in this book gives but little idea of its splendid proportions, and its internal structure has been planned with a view to facilitate postal work and to allow for future expansion.
The General Post Office in Calcutta was built in 1868 from designs made by Mr. Granville, Architect to the Government of India. The site is of great historical interest owing to its association with the tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta. The building is hardly large enough now for the great mass of work which it has to transact and, although the removal of the Postmaster-General's Office and the Sorting Branch has somewhat relieved the congestion, there is already a demand for increased accommodation. The same thing has happened in Madras where there is a large Post and Telegraph Office facing the sea, designed by Mr. Chisholm and opened to the public in 1885. The expansion of business has outgrown the capacity of the building, and the time has come to construct a new post office and to use the present building as a Telegraph Office. Most head offices and important sub-offices are now designed to provide a proper hall for the public who wish to transact business, with a counter for clerks and sufficient open space in the building to allow each branch to work independently and in comfort under the supervision of a responsible officer. At Lahore, Nagpur, Patna, Chittagong, Bareilly, Rawalpindi, Cawnpore, Howrah, Poona, Agra, Allahabad, Mandalay, Benares, Sholapur andMount Road Madras, excellent offices have been recently constructed, and the next few years will see Rangoon, Delhi, Dacca, Darjeeling, Ajmere, Ahmedabad and several other large towns provided with post office buildings, not only scientifically planned, but handsomely designed.
Apart from its architectural features the essentials in a post office building are very much those of a bank, namely, space, facility for supervision and an arrangement of the branches dealing with the public, so that anyone entering the office to do postal business can find his way immediately to the clerk concerned. Space is most necessary, especially in the sorting and delivery of mails. In crowded offices thefts occur, packets of mails get mixed up and shot into wrong bags, and proper supervision is almost impossible. The old Indian system of letting the public stand in the veranda of the post office and transact business through the windows of the buildings has always been fatal to good and quick work. In the first place it is not easy to find the proper window for the exact purpose one requires, and there are seldom sufficient for all the branches. In the second place, when one has discovered the right window, the clerk is seated inside some distance away, and it is often difficult to attract his attention. The only sensible arrangement is a hall with a proper counter and screen on which the departments are clearly indicated, and the clerks sitting right up face to face with the public. The postal clerk has the gift of complete aloofness when his services are in the greatest request, but it requires extra strong nerves to feign indifference to a man who is looking straight at you two feet away and shouting his demands in unintelligible Hindustani, especially if he hasn't yet breakfastedand the weather is very hot. The real value of the counter is, in fine, that it enables all work with the public to be performed in half the time.
Except in the very largest offices where the postmaster sits in some secluded abode like an Olympian god, the postmaster's seat should be in the main office and readily accessible to the public. Deputy and assistant postmasters are very fine fellows, but nothing can compensate for the eagle eye of the Head. It is extraordinary how quickly a delivery gets out when he is present to urge it along, and how swiftly one gets one's money orders or savings bank deposits when he is looking on. For this reason he should be always within hail and, if he can accustom himself to deal courteously with the public and treat his staff with justice and consideration, he will be the man that the Post Office requires.
The policy in past years of obtaining rented buildings for post offices has proved a serious misfortune to the Department. They are seldom or never suitable for public offices, and the various attempts to adapt them for postal purposes have been expensive and unsuccessful. Every addition means an increase of rent and, with each renewal of the lease, the rental is regularly enhanced. I don't think that it is an exaggeration to say that throughout India the rents paid for Post Office buildings have increased by 50 per cent in the last twenty-five years. In many instances the total value of the house itself has been paid many times over, and the Department still continues to pay an exorbitant price for the privilege of occupying the ruins. No more miserable or extravagant policy than this can be imagined, and in large stations the Post Office is absolutely in the hands of the landlord who can demand what he likes when a lease expires, a position which he is inclined to take full advantage of. In recent years the folly of this system has become more and more apparent, and efforts are now being made to provide Government buildings for all important offices, but any such scheme must necessarily take time since good sites in suitable positions are seldom available and funds are strictly limited.