Post Office and Public
A letter in The Times describing the postal services in an East Anglian town forty years ago draws very necessary attention to the deplorable deterioration in the Post Office's services to the public, particularly since the last war. East Anglia was, of course, not peculiar in this respect. It may be that more was given then than was actually necessary. In particular, the non-resumption of the Sunday morning delivery in the provinces after the first war was generally approved. But today the curtailment of the postal services—most of all the fact that there' is no collection in London later than 6.3o except at one or two central offices—is a scandal. The public is paying more than twice what it used to for the conveyance of its letters, and getting them less than half as well conveyed ; mean- while a handsome surplus is paid by the Post Office to the Treasury every year. Obviously no' private concern working under competitive conditions could behave like that. A monopoly can—and does. The abandonment of the late collection is apparently due largely to the dislike of the postal servants' unions to the late duty involved. The Post Offce sesms to put that before service to the public.
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