Almost from the first the Office undertook the free payment of Orders issued by the spending departments at Whitehall, the greater part of which consisted of Orders issued by the Admiralty and War Office in payment of pensions to soldiers and sailors. No payment is made to the Post Office for the work, but the advantages to the pensioner are great and obvious. By means of Money Orders they obtain payment at the nearest offices to their homes instead of having to attend personally at central pay offices and running the risk of being swindled by sharpers.
The Foreign Order system came into operation during the Crimean War. The British army in the East, and especially the civilian element of the expedition, who had not, like the soldiers, a regular official means of remitting money home, felt the need of some special arrangements for this purpose. Miss Nightingale remitted for these people no less a sum than £50 a week during 1855, and at the end of the year it was decided that the Army Post Office should issue Money Orders at inland rates at Constantinople, Scutari Headquarters, and Balaclava. The system began in January 1856, and during the first eight weeks more than £13,000 was remitted. The total amount sent home during the war was £106,000.
In 1859 a Money Order Convention was arranged with Canada. The Postmaster-General reported on this as follows: “The enlargement of the Money Order system has worked very satisfactorily, and will, I hope, lead to the extension to other Colonies. Such an extension would, I am convinced, be productive of much good, would save much money that now probably runs to waste, would afford great relief to many weak and aged persons, separated by the broad ocean from the younger and more vigorous members of the family, and would materially promote self-supporting immigration.”
The Money Order system was extended in 1862 and 1863 to Cape Colony, to the Australian and several of the West Indian Colonies. The rest of the Colonies soon followed the example.
Switzerland began to exchange Orders with us in 1869. Six months later Belgium followed, and then Germany came into the system in 1871. The United States and France followed suit a few years later. Spain and some of the States of Central and South America are now the only countries of importance with which this country does not exchange Money Orders.
The Foreign and Colonial Branch of the Office conducts a most complicated business. It is supposed to have the world's geography at its fingers' ends, to be able to find the whereabouts of every remote hamlet in South Africa or North America, to read half-a-dozen foreign languages, and to understand a score of systems of currency. The clerks are expected to be able to pacify hungry and ill-looking Poles and Italians, whose ignorance of the English language is only equal to their inability to grasp our system.
Some years ago, in a discussion on the attitude of the Church of Rome towards the Church of England, Mr. Gladstone wrote a letter to the Times on the subject which was very much quoted in other journals. Several poor foreigners from the East End called at the Money Order Office in great distress. They had sent money abroad in postal notes and orders, and inquired anxiously as to their safety, as they had been alarmed by hearing that the Roman Catholic Archbishop had denied in the papers “the validity of Anglican orders.” This is a good story even if it is not true.
I am reminded of a joint application to the Department by a clergyman and an official of the Bank of England. The occupations of the two were described as “Clerks in Holy Orders and in Bank of England.” In justice to the clergyman, the description is in the writing of the Bank of England clerk.
Telegraph Money Orders were first introduced in 1889, and several years later the system was extended to most of the European countries.
Postal Orders were first issued in 1881, and from the first were a huge success. Nearly 650,000 were sold during the first three months, and the immediate effect was a reduction in the issue of Money Orders. The Postmaster-General in one of his reports was able to say that “Money Orders are often lost and often stolen, but the departmental check is so complete that not more than one in every hundred thousand of the Orders issued is paid to other than the lawful owner.” That was a proud but justifiable boast, but of course it is a different matter altogether with the Postal Order. Still its cheapness and handiness outweighed all risks, and its popularity has never diminished. The total number of Orders issued during 1910 was 125,855,000, and the commission on them realised £483,421.