The Post Office of India and its Story. By Geoffrey
Clarke. (Lane. 16s. nct.)—The Indian postal service dates only from 1854, but has grown into a remarkably complete and efficient service, covering all India except about ten native States. Mr. Clarke's account of the service is compact and interesting. He comments on the laxity of some postmen in the towns, but he speaks highly of the postal runners, mostly drawn from the less civilized races, who have very rarely been known to fail in their duty, whatever the dangers, from tigers or tempests, that confronted them. He recalls the history of the old overland routes by Suez or by Baghdad and Aleppo, and the curious practice, abolished not long ago, of sorting the mails on the steamers between Suez and Bombay. There is a good chapter on Indian postage-stamps. Among the illustrations is a photo- graph of the Calcutta Post Office with the adjacent marble pavement marking the site of the Black Hole of 1756.
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