The Post Office Maystery1
| Published date | 01 October 1932 |
| Author | G. H. Stuart Bunning |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1932.tb01858.x |
| Date | 01 October 1932 |
The
Post
Office
Mystery’
By
G.
H.
STUART
BUNNING
UR
first
objection to the Bridgeman Report
is
that the title
0
is
misleading.
It
is not
a
report on the Post Office at
all,
and
its
correct title would be
‘I
A
Report as to whether the Post Office
should be placed under semi-public or private management, with
sundry
divagations as to telephones and finance.” The title would
have admittedly been lengthy, but
it
would also have been honest
and the public would have known what to expect
for
its
ninepence.
Indeed,
we
think
the Committee might have
borrowed
a
hint
from
Shaw’s description of “The Apple Cart” and styled the Report
“
A
Postal extravaganza with a Telephone Interlude.” The reason
why the Report
is
of
little value is interesting. Andrew Fletcher
wrote that the law to make it
a
mystery and
a
trade
was
wrapped
up in obscure terms, adding that
it
was founded in justice. We do
not know what is the foundation of the Post Office, but
it
knows the
advantage
of
obscurity.
A
profit
is
a
surplus,
a
loss
a
deficit, and
if
any lessening of
charges takes place it
is
a
concession,
as
though
there was some
Postal Deity who every now and then conferred favours on unworthy
mortals. Nor
is
this
done unskilfully. Considerable reductions
of
charges were made
in
1897,
and the sacred name
of
Queen Victoria
was invoked, the reductions being announced as
in
honour of
the
Diamond Jubilee,
This is to make the Post Office a mystery, and
it
is
the one thing
in which the Department has been consistent. Pnor to Rowland
Hill,
the mystery consisted in the public getting letters at
all,
but
Hill
changed its character,
though
not its nature, for by a magician’s
stroke, people not only got their letters but got them quickly and
cheaply. Ninepence for fourpence
was
for
once in a way true,
indeed
it
was eightpence for
a
penny.
Hill underwent a species of canonisation, for no one understood
how he had brought about
this
miraculous change, and great though
the reformer was, he had
not
the
gift
of
explication, indeed
he
never
1
Report
of
Committee
of
Enqui
on
the
Post
Office,
1932.
Cmd.
4149.
H.M.S.O.,
once
gd.
net.
Post
mce
Reform.
%count
Wolmer,
M.P.
(Ivor
Nicholson
t
Watson.)
6s.
net.
363
C
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