The policy of the Government of India has been clearly laid down in the correspondence dealing with the unification of the Hyderabad Posts with the Imperial Post Office. The Government is unwilling to take over the postal system of any State without the full consent of the Durbar or State Council, but it exercises the right of opening an Imperial post office or placing a letter-box anywhere in a State if Imperial interests require it. As a rule such offices are opened at railway stations or military cantonments, but they may be opened elsewhere in cases of real necessity. The aim of the Government is towards complete unification of the Post Office all over the country. The inconvenience of separate systems is keenly felt, and the inequality of Conventions on mutual terms between a great Empire and a small State is obvious. The principle upon which each country of the Postal Union retains its own postage on foreign correspondence is based on the theory that for every letter sent a letter is received, and that the transit charges are fairly apportioned, and in many cases the difference is slight when spread over a long period. When the principle is applied to a small State in a big country like India, the burden of handling correspondence is very unevenly divided. For every ten miles a letter has to be conveyed within the State, the Post Office of India may have to convey it a thousand miles or more at a cost altogether out of proportion to the postage receipts for half the correspondence handled. The difference is still more marked in the case of parcels and money orders and, despite all efforts to make the division of fees correspond with the work done by each administration, the position has never been satisfactory.

The postal future of the few States that still refuse to join the Imperial system is uncertain. All compromises have been rejected, and the arguments of prestige and prejudice are used to contest those of uniformity and convenience. As matters stand now the inconsistencies of small postal systems within the Indian Empire seem likely to continue until a firm hand on the one part and enlightened opinion on the other combine to abolish them.

CHAPTER XIII
THE OVERLAND ROUTE

Overland trade between Europe and India has existed from the earliest times and was fully developed during the Roman Empire. After the overthrow of the Western Empire by Odoacer in A.D. 476 and during the struggles with the Persians and Saracens the overland trade with the East languished until the consolidation of the Saracenic power at Damascus, Cairo and Bagdad. It was again thrown into disorder by the ascendancy of the Turkish Guard at Bagdad, and did not revive until the thirteenth century, when, as the result of the Crusades, Venice and Genoa became the great emporia for Eastern spices, drugs and silks. The merchandise came by land to the ports of the Levant and the Black Sea, but the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1483 drove the traffic to Alexandria, which continued to be the mart for Eastern wares until the discovery of the Cape route to India altered the whole conditions of trade.

The first historical attempt to reach England from India by the overland route was made in 1777 when Lord Pigot, Governor of Madras, was placed in confinement by his own Council. Both parties attempted to avoid loss of time in representing their case to the Board of Directors by despatching messengers up the Red Sea and across Egypt. The Council's messenger, Captain Dibdin, managed to land at Tor near the mouth of the Gulf of Suez, to make his way across Egypt and finally to reach his destination. Not so Mr. Eyles Irwin, the messenger of the Governor. He sailed in the brig Adventure, and after many mishaps only succeeded in reaching Cosseir on the Red Sea in July, where he and his companions were detained by the Turks.

In 1778, after the fall of Pondicherry, Warren Hastings was determined that the good news should go home via Suez, and he engaged to send Mr. Greuber by a fast sailing packet to that port with the despatches. The proposal was strenuously opposed by Francis and Wheler, but Hastings, having Barwell on his side and a casting vote in Council, was able to carry out his intention. Mr. Greuber managed to get through by this route, but neither Hastings nor the Board of Directors anticipated the objections which the Ottoman Porte had to any navigation of the Red Sea by the Company's ships. In 1779 the Porte issued a firman putting a stop to all trade between Egypt and India by the way of Suez and decreed that ships from India could proceed only as far as Jeddah. If despatches were to be sent by Suez, the messenger conveying them had to travel from Jeddah by Turkish ship. This was a hopeless arrangement and meant endless delay, besides which the fate of messengers or of any Europeans crossing the desert between Suez and Cairo was very uncertain. The terrible dangers and difficulties of the journey are graphically described in Mrs. Fay's letters. Owing to the opposition of the Turkish Government the overland route was abandoned for some time, but in 1797 an arrangement was made with them and the company's cruiser Panther, under the command of Captain Speak, sailed in that year with despatches. She left Bombay on the 9th March and reached Suez on the 5th May, where she waited for three months for return despatches; but since these did not arrive she returned to Bombay, and, being delayed by contrary winds at Mocha, finally arrived after an absence of thirteen months.

In 1798 the Government carried into execution a project which they had long been contemplating, namely, the establishment of a mail route from India to England by the Persian Gulf and Turkish Arabia. A number of packet boats were put on this service which plied between Bombay and Basrah once a month. Private correspondence was allowed to be sent by this route upon the following conditions:—

1. No letter was to exceed four inches in length, two in breadth, nor to be sealed with wax.

2. All letters were to be sent to the Secretary to Government with a note specifying the name of the writer and with the writer's name under the address, to be signed by the Secretary previous to deposit in the packet, as a warrant of permission.

3. Postage had to be paid upon the delivery of each letter at the rate of 10 rupees for a single letter weighing one-quarter of a rupee, for letters weighing half a rupee 15 rupees, and for letters weighing one rupee 20 rupees.