Note how readily the man adopts not only official phrases, but what is probably the unofficial language of his postmaster.
Leopards are more common than lions in Central Africa; but they are usually more anxious to steal sheep or other small domestic animals than to encounter men or women. A young telegraph operator was sent to a lonely station in the remote regions of Central Africa. From the small cabin which served as his dwelling and his office he could hear the roar of lions from a distance. This having occurred several times during the few days after his arrival, he became very much terrified, and despatched a wire to headquarters:—
“Impossible to live here. Surrounded day and night by lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, hyenas, wolves, crocodiles, hippopotami, &c. Beg for transfer.”
No reply was received, but a visitor who came to see him one day explained that this was probably because headquarters considered the telegram ridiculous, especially as there were no wolves in that part of Africa.
The forlorn operator immediately sent another wire. “Referring to my wire No. X, please cancel the word wolves.” But he was not recalled.
The relations of a Central African postmaster to his native staff are something like that of a feudal lord towards his tenants. All sorts of petty and private matters are brought to him for decision. Here is a report of a native official to his postmaster of a domestic difficulty which had been brought before him. “Njokomera take Massie, daughter of Chokabwino, to wife without pay for her. Now this court sentence Njokomera to pay Chokabwino one cow. Cow paid—case dismissed. Japeth.” The treatment of this difficult case should have ensured the native official rapid promotion.
The climate of Central Africa is of course exceedingly trying to the white man, and there is a rather well-known story of the English applicant for a Central African postmastership asking the Colonial Office what were the arrangements as to pension. And he received the gruesome reply that the question had not yet arisen.
In an old country like England, where vested interests oppose the reformer at every step he takes, where conservative influences dominate all classes, the individual statesman can achieve comparatively little. Go to a new country and you will find a different state of things. Even in the adoption of modern conveniences and scientific improvements, the colonies are often ahead of the mother country. And this is mainly due to the fact that in these countries precedent has not been elevated to the position of a divine commandment.
It was therefore only to be expected, that the first move towards making Imperial Penny Postage an accomplished fact should come from the colonies, and it was natural, and in accordance with the law which seems to govern these things, that the old country should have been only too willing to hold to the old ways so long as it was possible for her to do so with dignity. To the Hon. William Mulock, K.C., Postmaster-General of Canada in 1898, belongs the credit of having forced the hand of Great Britain. While Great Britain was considering the matter, his Government announced that on and from a certain date one penny would be the charge for letters weighing two ounces from Canada to Great Britain. For other colonies to follow suit was then only a matter of time, and in fact they very soon adopted the new policy. It was the year following the Diamond Jubilee that saw the great change: there had been created in people's minds the sense of the oneness of the British Empire, and it was felt that the most tangible way of bringing this fact permanently home to the nation was in making 1d. the uniform charge to and from every country which gave allegiance to the British sovereign. To many minds there must be something wrong in the idea of the postage being 2½d. to Paris and 1d. to Quebec, but there was something which appealed to the imagination in even this distinction. It was the privilege of the British subject. Canada at that time was deriving no revenue from her Post Office; and it is a fact that nations in such circumstances seem more inclined to be liberal in Post Office matters than those which are making a profit out of the business.