Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/293

Rh departments at the Inspectorate and in the Custom Houses at Shanghai and Chinkiang; and, similarly, for the transmission of mails by coast steamers during the open season, the opening of quasi-postal departments in the Tientsin and other coast port Custom Houses.

At that early date it could be seen that this might form the nucleus of a National Post Office. This idea had already so much ingratiated itself in the official mind that in 1876, when the Chefoo Convention was being negotiated, the Tsung-li-yamen authorised the Inspector-General to inform the British Minister, Sir Thomas Wade, that it was prepared to sanction the establishment of a National Postage System, and willing to make it a treaty stipulation that postal establishments should be opened at once. Unfortunately, the insertion of the postal clause was omitted from the official text of the Treaty, and thus the project was postponed .

Meanwhile, however, the experiment was persevered with, and it received warm encouragement from the Imperial Commissioner, Li Chun-t'ang, who promised to "father" it officially as soon as it proved a success. Hence the more formal opening of postal departments at various Custom Houses, the 1878 experiment of trying a native post office alongside the Customs post, and the establishment of Customs couriers from Taku to Tientsin, and from Tientsin to Peking, and the Customs winter mail service overland from Tientsin to Newchwang, Chefoo, and Chinkiang, as well as the introduction of Customs postage stamps in 1878.

The growing importance of the service thus quietly built up was recognised by the foreign administrations having postal agencies in China. In 1878 China was formally invited to join the Postal Union. In the same year, while on a visit to Paris, the Inspector-General was "sounded" by the French Minister for Foreign Affairs as to a possible way of withdrawing the French Post Office in Shanghai; and while, more than once, the British Postmaster-General at Hongkong expressed his readiness to close the Hongkong Post Office agencies along the coast, arrangements were actually discussed for the absorption by the Customs Department of the Municipal Post Office at Shanghai. But no definite response to these overtures could be given before the Chinese Government had declared its intention to undertake national responsibilities; and the Customs Department continued to satisfy only certain wants and prepare the system for further development, till, twenty years after the Chefoo Convention, the decree of March 20, 1896, appeared. This decree created an Imperial Post for all China, to be modelled on Western lines. The organisation and management were confided to Sir Robert Hart, who, from that date, has acted in the double capacity of Inspector-General of Customs and Posts.

This long hesitation on the part of the Chinese Government formally to recognise and foster an institution known to have worked with such profitable results in foreign countries may be a matter of surprise to some people. But it must not be forgotten that from times immemorial the Chinese nation has possessed two postal institutions—one, the I Chan (or Imperial Government Courier Service), deeply rooted in official routine; the other, the native posting agencies, long used and respected by the people. Both give employment to legions of couriers, and are still necessary to the requirements of an immense nation; they can neither be suppressed, transformed, nor replaced at a stroke. The imperial decision, therefore, only gave final sanction to a new and vast undertaking, but abolished nothing. It is through competition and long persevering efforts that the two older systems must gradually be superseded and the implantation of the National Post Office patiently pursued.

These two systems deserve more than a passing notice. The first is wholly maintained by the State through provincial contributions from ordinary local taxes. In 1902, the two Yangtsze Viceroys, in a joint memorial submitting their own plans for a National Post, estimated the total cost of this service at some Tls. 3,000,000 annually. It is an enormous sum, far above actual requirements, in exchange for which very poor services are secured. The memorialists themselves recognised it, and strongly recommended the gradual abolition of the I Chan. It can thus be seen that as soon as the Imperial Post Office is ready to undertake the responsibility, the Government Courier Service will yield its place and disappear. It has already lost much of its importance, steam communication along the seaboard and the rivers having long rendered its functions obsolete on many imperial routes. The rapid growth of inland steam navigation and the building of railway lines are so many improvements in internal communications of which the Imperial Post Office