The return of the post-office to pre-war standards or something
like them is very welcome. The ideal of getting a letter posted in London fairly late in the afternoon to its destination anywhere in Great Britain in time for the first delivery the next morning is worth achieving, and Lord Listowel seems bent on achieving it. The public has little conception of the part played in the postal system by the travelling post-offices which converge on Crewe from all quarters about midnight every night, and the fact that their number is to be increased is the best guarantee of improvement in the service generally ; it is also, incidentally, a demonstration of the complete and effective co-operation between the privately- owned railways and the nationalised post-office. But there is room fur much more postal reform yet. The average cost of collecting, transporting and delivering a postal packet is 1.4 pence. A letter, for which 24d. is charged, pretty certainly costs less than that. The fact is that the post-office is being made simply a tax-collector for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. That is all wrong, at any rate on the scale prevailing today. If the Postmaster-General is to have half a chance he must be allowed to use his profits to improve services or reduce rates, or both. Actually, the profits would allow him to do both easily.
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